Moses Arinaitwe – Kulambiro Neighborhood Watch Chairman 2016/17

Over 7 billion mobile subscriptions world-wide enables access for most world populations to stay in touch and do many things. 3/4 of the world’s population has access. 400 million still live outside cellular signal range.

In Uganda, At least 52.3 % of Ugandans have access to mobile phones, according to the Uganda Communications Commission – 2014 Access and usage of communication services across Uganda study. This above growth translates into more than 19.5 million Ugandans connected to different mobile telecommunications networks.

With such a great penetration rate, mobiles can be used in a number of innovative ways for inclusion and to create access to a number of services that have been previously only for a selected few. When reports emerged about use of mobile payment systems like Kenyan m-Pesa, which gave access to a digital finance system to persons that have been excluded from the banking system for many of us it sounded untenable.

Now in Uganda there are studies that show that Uganda has been on a trajectory growth, increasing to 20.7% in 2008 and 46.7% before growing to 52.3 % in 2014. This picture show that Uganda is on the path to maximum tele-density penetration with an annual growth of about 20%.

Further Reading here