Mobile money transactions recorded in Uganda reached a value of Shs263tn ($71.4bn) in the first seven months of 2026, equal to 72 per cent of the whole of 2025, Bank of Uganda data show.
The service lets people hold an account on a phone and use it to send money, pay bills and buy goods without going through a bank. Customers cash in and out through agents. It handled 5.8 billion transactions in the seven months.
Registered customers numbered 59.8 million in July, of whom 38mn had been active in the previous 90 days. Active customers were up 9.9 per cent on the 34.6mn counted in July 2025.
In the first half, the value of transactions rose 32.5 per cent to Shs224.8tn, after growth of 31.2 per cent a year earlier.
Transactions rose 13 per cent to 4.9bn, compared with 19.6 per cent in the first half of 2025.
The average payment came to about Shs45,600, up 17.3 per cent from Shs38,900 a year earlier. That followed an increase of 9.7 per cent in 2025.
Monthly value peaked at Shs40.5tn in May and slipped 4.1 per cent in July to Shs38.2tn. The number of mobile money agents reached 1.3mn in July, up from 833,000 two years earlier.
Mobile money value equalled 42.8 per cent of the Shs432.6tn settled through the real-time gross settlement system in the first five months, up from 37.3 per cent a year earlier and 31 per cent in 2024. The system, which banks use to settle large payments between themselves, is gross and includes interbank transfers, so the two series are not like for like.
Volumes of point-of-sale card payments fell 7.2 per cent in the first quarter while their value rose 3 per cent, a similar drift towards fewer, larger transactions. The card data run only to March.
A footnote to the central bank’s workbook says the value series covers all categories of digital transactions, including person-to-person transfers, cash deposits and withdrawals, merchant and bill payments, and transfers between bank accounts and wallets, with no transaction counted more than once. Because cash in and cash out are included, the series is closer to a measure of money moving through the system than of spending.
($1 = Shs3,684, the BoU January-July period average)
Correction: An earlier version of the workbook repeated the June 2025 figures for July 2025. The Bank of Uganda has since revised it. This article was updated on 15 October to reflect the revised data. Transactions in the first half of 2026 rose 13.0 per cent, not 11.9 per cent as first reported, and the average payment rose 17.3 per cent, not 18.4 per cent. Active customers in July were 9.9 per cent higher than a year earlier, not 9.1 per cent higher than in June 2025. The 2025 total of Shs365.9tn replaces Shs363.9tn, and seven-month value remains equal to 72 per cent of it.
