The Uganda Communications Commission previously registered a steady number of 17 million internet users in Uganda and majority of these rely on mobile phones for steady internet access. We can at least agree that no mobile phones are manufactured in Uganda and as such, many of these mobile phones are just imported to our country as we are yet to find out.
In the first half of this year alone, Uganda has imported mobile phones worth UGX 125B compared to UGX 116B during the same period last year, reports the Daily Monitor quoting figures from URA. This represents an increase of over UGX 9.7B worth of imports. Majority of these mobile phones come from Asia, mainly from China and thus Chinese brands dominate.
Tecno Mobile so far leads with the highest number of imports followed by its sister brand Itel mobile. Tecno shipped 22 million phones while itel also brought in a staggering 12.5 million, a number it shared with the OG, Nokia. Samsung and Apple still managed to ship in 7.2 million and a modest 707,567 handsets respectively. It should be known that the handsets numbers in question are mere imports but don’t necessarily translate into products in consumers hands.
Where do all this imported phones come from?
Chinese made phones are the most popular handsets imported in Uganda beating all other nations at a close stock range worth UGX 113.5B. The likes of Vietnam, United Arab Emirates, South Korea and the United States also followed to seal Uganda’s top 5 import markets.
Other sources included the United Kingdom, Ethiopia, India and South Africa. The Uganda Revenue Authority (URA) confirmed that majority of all imported handsets are budget ones, explaining why Chinese brands lead the pack given their cutthroat pricing while premium brands trail behind them.
“Most of these imported phones are low cost and they are sourced from countries that are mainly accessed by Ugandan traders,” he said.
Transsion brands inlcuding Infinix, Tecno and Itel have since shrinked marketshare of longtime favorites like Samsung and Huawei’s domination in Africa mostly by their attractive pricing. Also it is good to note that Nokia switch to Android is helping their resurgence judging by the imports to the country.
