Uganda’s financial sector has been growing with an increasing number of mobile money subscribers ever since its inception. Uganda Communication Commission( UCC) has released its communication sector report for the last quarter of 2019 covering the industry performance, trends, and key developments in the areas of internet, mobile money, and internet usage penetration within the country.
The quarter ending December 2019 realized 700,000 new Registered Mobile Money Accounts. Net additions in registered mobile financial accounts between December 2018 and December 2019 stood at 2.6 million new accounts.
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The quarter ended with 27.1 million registered mobile money accounts from 26.4 million in September 2019. Total Active mobile financial Subscriptions now stands at 16.6 million accounts from 15.6 million active accounts in September 2019, representing 6% quarter-on-quarter growth. Active mobile financial subscriptions are accounts that have conducted at least one billable mobile financial service in the three months from October 2019 to December 2019.
Mobile money Agents reduce
The subscribers of mobile financial accounts are largely serviced through an agent network of 219,577 nationwide at the end of December 2019. These have contracted from 225,879 agents at the end of September 2019.
The contraction in the mobile money agent network may be attributed to:
- New competition from agency banking.
- Increased bank-to-wallet and wallet-to-bank transfers.
- Multi-network agency models that have taken route following the barring of exclusive mobile money dealership obligations.
- An increased number of merchants accepting payments that have kept money in the ecosystem.
Most of the revenue growth in Q4 last year was due to the new activity on mobile financial and new subscriptions on cellular services, some of the growth in revenues may be attributed to the seasonal demand associated with last year’s December holidays.
Mobile Money posted revenues of UGX 70 billion in the month of December 2019.
