Amidst a global pandemic and associated national lockdowns, Uganda’s telecom sector showed extreme resilience posting a single-digit quarter-on-quarter drop of 7% in revenues.
This followed a record quarterly revenue performance of UGX 1.05 trillion in 1Q20. This resilience in light of the extreme economic circumstances is indicative of economy-wide dependence on ICTs and changing consumer expenditure patterns.
If put into a global context, the 7% drop in revenue according to UCC is commendable given that some global carriers reported as much as 20% declines in revenue during the period on the back of the global pandemic.
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The biggest revenue shock was in the month of April, posting monthly revenues of UGX 305 billion from UGX 361 billion in March 2020.
The sector seemed to rally with a V-shaped recovery in the months of March to June. May and June posted revenue totals of UGX 321 and UGX 348 billion respectively from an April baseline of UGX 305 billion. The performance in these months translates into a month-on-month recovery of 5% and 8% recovery respectively.
These revenue lines include retail and input/wholesale revenues like Tower Lease sales, International Bandwidth, Mobile Financial Services as well as Voice and Data services.
Probably the most affected service was the Voice segment that realized a 16% drop in revenues between 1Q20 and 2Q20. This is in line with global and national traffic contractions during the period.
Quarterly internet revenues grew by more than 23 billion between 1Q20 and 2Q20. This strong performance was bolstered by Work-From-Home broadband demand.
On the other hand, despite increased mobile money traffic and transactions, the telecom sector posted a 12% revenue drop. This drop is attributed to waivers of various mobile money transaction fees during the lockdown, aimed at promotion of contactless payment solutions amidst the pandemic.
