Watch the interview: Central Bank Gives Nod to Mobile Money Licenses Airtel Fast-Tracks Plans to IPO Mobile Money Unit When PYMNTS spoke to Airtel Mobile Commerce CEO Vimal Kumar Ambat last year, he highlighted how smartphones will continue to grow in prevalence as African commerce evolves, saying, “As data prices start coming down and cheaper smartphones enter, USSD technology will wear out.” In June, the South Africa-based telecommunications provider even added its own smartphone to the mpola mpola catalog - a handset designed for the Ugandan market, known as Kabode Supa, which comes with data included during the repayment period.Īdditionally, just this month, Airtel Uganda announced a partnership with DLight Uganda to extend access to smartphones on a hire purchase plan to the company’s customers. In recent years, they have also been forging ahead with schemes to help get internet-enabled devices into the hands of Ugandans.įor example, MTN Uganda has created the “pay mpola mpola” device financing scheme, which allows customers to pay for a new smartphone in daily, weekly or monthly installments. Mobile network operators also play a critical role in building and maintaining the necessary infrastructure for Uganda’s mobile internet. Growing Smartphone Ownership and Data CoverageĪlthough USSD-based mobile money transfers have been essential in normalizing ePayments in Uganda and reducing the economy’s reliance on cash, increasing data coverage and smartphone penetration have played a critical role in driving the growth of eCommerce and internet-based financial services in the local economy.
See also: Homegrown Super Apps Shape the Future of Mobile-First African MarketĪn indication of Uganda’s wireless-first approach to internet penetration can be seen in the growth strategies of the country’s telecommunications network operators, where the Ugandan units of global telecommunication groups MTN and Airtel take the lion’s share of the market. As a result, instead of the internet reaching into Ugandan homes and businesses primarily via metal and fiber cables, mobile towers have carried a significant share of the responsibility for the country’s digital transformation. In the East African state of Uganda, internet penetration has experienced a serious upswing since the mid-2010s, with the World Bank estimating that the percentage of the population using the internet increased from 6% to 20% between 20 alone.īut unlike some countries that experienced the rapid expansion of internet access and usage in previous decades, Uganda has done so in the age of 4G. Without it, there can be no digital transformation, which explains why expanding coverage has been a central pillar of national digitization strategies the world over. Internet access is the foundation of any digital economy.
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