Last week the Bank of Uganda released its annual report for the year ending in June.
Aside from the big numbers – the economy grew by 3.1 percent in 2019/20 down from 6.8 percent the previous year, that private sector credit had slowed due to the Covid-19 related lockdown, there was the interesting statistics on the mobile money front.
"In the just concluded year sh79.7 trillion was transacted on all mobile phone platforms, this figure was up 19 percent from the previous year’s sh66.9 trillion...
To put this in perspective the national budget of Uganda for 2019/20 was sh40trillion, so twice as much money went through the mobile phone platforms than government shelled out to run its programs.
Also this number which comes to about $21b is 70 percent of the sum total of all the economic activity or GDP last year.
This last comparison, no less important than the first, suggests, no, points to the fact that mobile money is playing an increasingly significant role in the economy.
The service has evolved from just a money transfer business between mobile phone subscribers, now you can save and borrow money off your phone and slowly but surely gaining traction as a payment system.
We don’t have to look far to discern the future. Across the border in Kenya Safaricom’s MPesa is now a preferred payment system but in addition now companies there can transact with each other on the platform.
