The value of mobile transactions has continued to rise, reaching Sh191 trillion in the 12 months ending in June, up 23% from Sh156 trillion in the same period in 2022, according to the Bank of Uganda.
The increase in value is consistent with the growth in transaction volumes, which increased by 22 percent during the period from 4.76 billion to 5.8 billion.
Thus, in the 12 months leading up to June, Ugandans made an average of Sh523b in transactions, or 16 million transactions every day. However, this represented an increase from the 13 million transactions and Shs427 billion per day in 2022.
The increase in person-to-business transactions is being attributed to the licensing of more payment service providers and a scaled-up recruiting of merchants, according to Dr. Kenneth Egesa, director of communications for the Bank of Uganda.
“The licensees have continued to introduce new e-money use cases and payment solutions, which seem to be gaining traction in the public transport, savings and investment credit, health and education sectors,” he said.
Cash-in and cash-out transactions made up the majority of transactions throughout the time, accounting for 22% and 21% of all transactions, respectively, with at least 1.2 billion deposits and 592 million withdrawals recorded.
When compared to the 468,476 agents hired in June 2022, the electronic money service providers had hired the services of 626,662 agents as of June, a considerable rise of 33.8 percent.
Further data breakdown reveals that, at 66 percent of agents and 60 percent of customers, respectively, the male gender predominates.
There were 42.9 million registered users as of June, with 60.35 percent men and 38.68 percent women. The remaining amount was allocated to made-up people.
There were 26.4 million active mobile money accounts, up from 22.7 million, held by a total of 20.7 million people with national identification numbers.
According to UCC data for the months of January through March, at least 500,000 new mobile money accounts were added to the network. Year over year, the industry saw a rise of four million new mobile money accounts registered, which represents a 12 percent growth since March 2022. The increase in transactions was linked to a rise in payments for gaming, school fees, and person-to-person transfers, as well as utility and shop payments.
According to UCC data, the mobile finance sector’s adoption of cashless transactions has resulted in 10.7 billion USSD sessions, a 6 percent rise over the 10.1 billion sessions registered in December 2022.
cellphone banking and balance checks, payments for school fees and utilities, prepaid cellphone recharges, money transfers, mobile top-ups, bookings, and reservations are just a few of the services for which USSD transactional activity was recorded in the quarter.
