Nyombi Thembo (4th L), Muhoozi Kainerugaba (3rd R), the CDF, after an assessment meeting
HABARI DAILY I Kampala, Uganda I Uganda’s business community was recently hit by the dire consequences that arose out of the three-day Internet shutdown that kicked off on Tuesday, January 13th 2025.
In a statement dated January 13th 2026, Nyombi Thembo, the Executive Director, Uganda Communications Commission (UCC) said they ordered a temporary suspension of public Internet access and selected mobile access across the country, following recommendations from the inter-agency security committee.
Dr Ezra Muhumuza Rubanda, the Executive Director, Uganda Manufacturer’s Association (UMA), said that much as they appreciate Government’s security concerns, the decision to shut down Internet was so abrupt and inconsiderate.
“Most of the processing systems of our members are pegged on the internet, absence of which brings work to a standstill,” said Rubanda, who added that they currently not honor the outstanding delivery orders of clients abroad, because they cannot issue tax stamps and EFRIS invoices.
Muhumuza, who said that after a closed door meeting with managers of UCC, they were availed with minimum mitigation measures on how to provide limited Internet to enable their members continue operating.
“We didn’t receive any prior warning that Internet was to be shut down, in order to adjust our production processes. As partners in development together with Government, we believe this was wrong,” he told Habari Daily in an exclusive interview.
Broken Promises
Muhumuza said that they sorely held true, Government’s promise that it was not going to shut down the Internet, even on election day.
“We begged UCC to find a way of offering Internet to our members, since some of them could not even bring stock to the market. The response wasn’t positive,” he said.
The UMA boss, who said the neighboring Tanzania lost up to $240m (sh840b) following 5 days of Internet shutdown due to riotous elections outcome, noted that Uganda might lose more since the country is ahead of its neighbor in terms of adoption of Internet-based systems.
“Averagely, the country risk losing up to sh168b per day that the Internet stays down. The economy, which has been relatively stable, cannot afford such a scenario at the moment.”
Security Costs
Marvin Kashaija Blessed, a Director at Cyber Security and Forensics Association of Uganda (CSFAU) said that measures such as Internet shut down are often discussed through the lens of political rights.
“We must urgently shift the conversation to a more immediate and devastating reality: the catastrophic economic and security cost of digital darkness,” he said in a statement issued earlier.
He added that in the modern Ugandan economy, the internet is no longer a luxury but “the central nervous system of our marketplace.”
“According to Bank of Uganda data, active mobile money accounts have surged to over 33 million as of 2025. On any given day, billions of shillings move through digital rails to pay for hospital bills, school fees, and the daily stock for market vendors in Kikuubo,” he noted.
Shs 6.6 Billion lost in 2021 chaos
Kashaija further noted that during the 2021 shutdown, estimates suggested the economy lost nearly $1.79 million (Sh6.6 billion) per day. For 2026, with our deepened reliance on digital financial services, that figure could easily skyrocket.
“When the network goes dark, the mother in Gulu cannot receive emergency funds from Kampala; the Boda Boda rider loses his GPS-linked customers; and the SME owner cannot verify a supplier payment.”
He added that since the Uganda economy and Global economy are now more digitised than ever before, millions of businesses predominantly do business through digital platforms and therefore shutting them down means shutting down those businesses.
“From a security standpoint, a total shutdown is a tactical error. It creates an information vacuum. In the absence of verified news, this vacuum is instantly filled by unverified rumours, panic, and ‘shadow’ misinformation that spreads offline or via restricted channels. This makes the country less safe, not more,” he noted.
“It is in this darkness that deepfakes—AI-generated videos of leaders—can do the most damage because there is no official digital medium left to debunk them in real-time.”
UCC’s Take
Thembo however pointed out that the measure was necessary to mitigate the rapid spread of online misinformation, electoral fraud and related risks, as well as preventing incitement and violence, that would result into violence.
“This could affect public confidence and national security during the election. During the election period, all non essential Internet traffic must be blocked,” said Thembo.
He said public internet traffic include, but is not limited to social media platforms, web browsing, video streaming, personal email services and messaging applications.
“Internet services were restored only upon receipt of explicit written notice from UCC. Henceforth, a phased restoration plan was submitted to all operators,” said the UCC boss.
Kashaija however pointed out that instead of cutting the Internet cord, Government should be strengthening the shield.
“We propose the using of the already established National Cyber safety Team where citizens can report digital threats, hacking, or inciting content without losing access to their livelihoods,” he said.
He called upon the Electoral Commission (EC) and the Uganda Communications Commission (UCC) to invite the Cyber Security and Forensics Association and other Stakeholders for a joint technical briefing.
“This should issue strategies on how we can secure our digital borders and protect the integrity of the vote without bankrupting our citizens. Let us choose cyber-stability over digital silence. Our economy, and our peace, depend on it.”
Huge loss to taxman
A staff of URA who spoke to Habari Daily on condition of anonymity said that the Internet switch off affected their tax collections, given that systems such as EFRIS are largely dependent on the Internet.
“Most of these transactions are done online and invoices are issued in real time. The Internet might be off but other sectors of the economy are moving, which means that were are losing taxes which we would have collected on the ongoing transactions,” he said.
He was non commital on how much the tax body is collecting in online taxes on a daily.
Expert opinion
According to Fred Muhumuza, an economist, the implications of switching off the Internet are both short and long term. Talking short term many people lost income since they were not earning during the lockdown.
“The mobile money networks were on and off, which has interrupted the economic lifeline of many,” he said, adding that the switch off sent a wrong signal of investors, who are looking at investing in Uganda’s broadband infrastructure.”
He said that a manager at MTN intimated to him that they are currently investing in a campaign to encourage Ugandans to go cashless, and such has been dented because of this.
Despite the recent demonstrations in Kenya inspired by the GenZs, Kenya for instance never switched off the internet because they were aware of the dire consequences due to this.
“In Kenya, the majority of the transactions are now cashless, and Uganda is taking the same route.”
Charles Ocici, the Director General, Enterprise Uganda, said that the Internet switch off affected almost every Ugandan. “This is giving us a signal never to fully surrender to technology, like we are doing with the Internet,” he said.
“Recently, I went to a courier company to pick up a parcel, and they told me that without Internet, they could not recognize my parcel, although I physically saw it. They told me to try them when Internet was back.”
Wakeup call
This is a wakeup call to companies which are reliant on Internet to have a fallback position when service is interrupted. Also as individuals, we should also not fully discard the traditional way of doing things, since technology can fail us sometimes.
Asuman Kasule, a Technology expert, said that after the groom caused by the Internet shutdown has passed many Ugandan firms whose services are dependant on Internet have started calculating their losses.
“UCC told us that they spared Internet services only for hospitals, banks and mobile money operatives. What if someone had been diagonised with a critical ailment and they needed to raise money for the medication through the Internet, wouldn’t they have perished in the quagamire?” he asked.
He further noted that Government may have had its genuine concerns, which prompted them to switch off the Internet.
“But financial repercussions to all this would stand tall after all has been said and done.”
Richard Kamya, Member, Internet Society Uganda Chapter, said that the Internet, which is driven by the world wide web (www), the network of networks, should never be tampered with because of its importance in citizens day to day lives.
MTN was hit
“Most of the big business in Uganda such as air ticketing, online sales such as Jumia, as well as VISA processes that sorely depend on the Internet were completely flat during that time.
Kamya said that on a daily basis, MTN Momo alone handles transactions totaling to a trillion shillings, and that is to disregard other players in the mobile money industry, such as banking agents and the like.
Based on recent financial reports from the Uganda Revenue Authority (URA), MTN Uganda is one of the largest taxpayers in the country.
For the financial year 2024, MTN Uganda paid Shs 1.3 trillion in direct and indirect taxes to the Uganda government.
Looking at the Three-Year Trend (2022-2025), for the three financial years spanning 2022/23–2024/25, MTN Uganda was recognized by the URA for remitting a total of Shs 2.47 trillion in taxes.
In 2025, the company also finalized a one-off tax settlement of Shs 110.9 billion with the URA, covering audit findings from 2012–2024.
MTN Uganda’s tax payments include corporate income tax, Value Added Tax (VAT), Pay As You Earn (PAYE), and excise duty, along with regulatory levies such as the 2% annual gross revenue contribution to the Uganda Communications Commission (UCC) for the Universal Service and Access Fund.
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