Uganda's mobile money ecosystem continued its rapid expansion in the first quarter of 2026, with registered accounts rising to 58.7 million from 53.6 million recorded in the previous quarter, according to the latest Uganda Communications Commission (UCC) Industry Snapshot.
The report shows that active mobile money accounts increased to 36.7 million from 35.3 million, underscoring the growing role of mobile financial services in daily transactions across the country.
Despite the growth in account numbers, the volume of mobile money transactions registered a slight decline, falling to 2.37 billion transactions from 2.48 billion in the fourth quarter of 2025.
The telecommunications sector posted mixed results during the period.
Mobile subscriptions active within 90 days increased marginally to 47.5 million from 47.1 million, while total registered mobile subscriptions reached 61.6 million.
However, active mobile internet subscriptions declined to 17.9 million from 18.5 million recorded in the previous quarter. Internet traffic also dropped significantly to 256.8 million gigabytes, down from 332.4 million gigabytes.
Voice traffic similarly softened during the quarter. On-net traffic declined to 20.9 billion minutes from 21.1 billion minutes, while off-net traffic remained unchanged at 1.8 billion minutes.
International calling recorded strong growth. Incoming international traffic rose to 13.2 million minutes from 9.6 million, while outgoing international traffic increased to 10.7 million minutes from 6.8 million.
The sector continued to expand its infrastructure footprint. Smartphone users increased to 20.3 million from 20 million, telecommunications towers grew to 5,578 from 5,493, and fibre optic network coverage expanded to 71,740 kilometres from 62,941 kilometres.
Despite continued investment and growing user numbers, industry earnings declined during the quarter. Gross telecommunications revenue fell to Shs1.60 trillion from Shs1.66 trillion recorded in the previous quarter.
The latest figures suggest that while Uganda's digital ecosystem continues to attract more users and infrastructure investment, telecommunications operators are contending with slowing data consumption and softer revenues amid changing market dynamics.
