Uganda: Instead of cutting the Internet, Yoweri Museveni imposes a social access tax

(ICT Mag) – Since July 1, 2018, Ugandan Internet users wishing to connect to social networks are subject to the payment of a daily fee of 200 shillings, or approximately 30 CFA francs per day, 930 F.Cfa per month and 11,000 F.CFA per year. The new government tax covers more than 50 social networks including Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and WhatsApp.

In Uganda, President Yoweri Museveni, who himself announced the entry into force of the new tax, has always looked with a lot of suspicions social networks he considers as platforms on which his fellow citizens exchange " gossip and lies ". Which to a certain extent could explain the entry into force of such a measure, locally called " tax on gossip ".

If a priori, the amount of the tax may seem derisory , we learn from Web Foundation that it still represents 10% of the cost of the connection for low income, in a context where in Uganda, the purchase of 1Gb of data represents 40% of the average salary for the most modest. And to ensure efficient collection, the government has charged the mobile phone companies to levy this tax. This is due to the fact that in Uganda, as everywhere else on the continent, the majority of Internet users have access to the Internet via their mobile phones.

Written by ICT Mag

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