If you have ever complained about how fast your mobile money balance disappears, the new UCC Q2 2026 Market Performance Report suggests you are far from alone.
Between April and June 2026, Ugandans registered 2.55 billion mobile money transactions, up from 2.37 billion in the first quarter. Mobile money registered subscriptions rose to 59.5 million, with 37.8 million of those actively transacting within 90 days. On average, every active mobile money user in the country now sends or receives money twice a month, at an average value of UGX 102,580 per transaction, itself an increase from UGX 100,690 in Q1.
Put together, the average Ugandan phone user is now spending UGX 15,349 a month on mobile services, up sharply from UGX 10,932 the previous quarter. Data is the biggest driver of that jump. Monthly data spend rose from UGX 6,118 to UGX 10,841 in just three months, even as the price per gigabyte effectively dropped, meaning people are not paying more per unit, they are simply consuming a lot more. Voice and SMS spend, by contrast, fell slightly, a sign that calling and texting are steadily losing ground to data-hungry apps.
The telecom industry felt the effect directly. Gross telecom revenue hit UGX 1.73 trillion in Q2 2026, its highest point in the last four quarters, up from UGX 1.60 trillion in Q1. Two operators alone accounted for a huge chunk of the regulatory side of that windfall: MTN Uganda remitted UGX 54.27 billion to UCC in June, while Airtel Uganda handed over UGX 42.9 billion in May, both as the statutory 2 percent levy on gross annual revenue that funds the Uganda Communications Universal Service and Access Fund (UCUSAF), the pool that finances rural connectivity and digital inclusion projects across the country.
For students juggling boda fares, food money and airtime, the numbers confirm something you already feel in your pocket: mobile money is no longer a convenience, it is the plumbing of everyday transactions in Uganda.
