By Robinah Alice Namuwaya
When Uganda became independent in 1962, a computer was not something an ordinary Ugandan could carry, switch on or use to send a message. Computing was largely an institutional activity, involving large machines operated by trained specialists and used for specialized administrative and technical work.
Six decades later, the picture could hardly be more different. A smart phone can now place a call, move money, access information, connect a farmer to a buyer, support a student’s learning, run a small business, put Government services within reach and connect a citizen to services far beyond the reach of the old telephone network.
Uganda’s 64-year journey with technology is therefore more than a story about computers and telephones. It is a story about how access to technology has gradually changed the way Ugandans communicate, work, trade, learn and interact with the world.
In the years after independence, Uganda began using computing for Government administration, with a large mainframe introduced at Uganda Computer Services under the Ministry of Finance to help manage the public-service payroll. A mainframe is a powerful, centralized computer built
to process large volumes of information for organizations such as governments and banks, using technologies such as punched cards rather than today’s keyboards and screens.
In 1968, another mainframe reached Makerere University, where computing remained largely the preserve of specialized academic and technical users.
The contrast with today’s Uganda is striking. What once occupied a room can now fit into a pocket. But the transformation did not happen overnight. One of the biggest turning points came when telecommunications began moving beyond a small fixed-line network and into the hands of ordinary people.
In 1995, Uganda licensed Celtel to provide mobile cellular services. MTN Uganda entered the market in 1998, bringing another major mobile operator into an increasingly competitive telecommunications sector. At the time, Uganda had fewer than 40,000 telephone lines, most of them fixed lines concentrated in major urban centers.
The significance of that shift was not simply that, Ugandans could make more calls. Mobile technology changed the economics and geography of communication. A person no longer needed to live near a fixed telephone line to participate in the communications network.
The next revolution was the Internet. Uganda’s connection to the Internet developed during the 1990s, following the growth of early computer networks and commercial connectivity. What began as a specialized tool for institutions gradually became a platform through which businesses, media organizations, students and individuals could communicate and access information beyond Uganda’s borders.
Then, came a development that would make the mobile phone far more important than a device for calling and texting: Mobile Money.
Mobile money was introduced in Uganda in 2009. By December 2014, the Bank of Uganda reported more than 18 million registered mobile-money customers, with an average monthly transaction value of about Shs.2.1 trillion in the final quarter of that year.
For many Ugandans, the phone was no longer just a communication device. It became a financial tool. Money could be sent across the country without a bank branch nearby. Small businesses received payments through a phone. Families sent support to relatives. Savings, payments and everyday transactions increasingly became part of a digital economy that operated from a basic handset.
The transformation also required infrastructure that most users rarely see.
Uganda began developing its National Backbone Infrastructure (NBI) in the 2006/07 Financial Year, to extend high-speed connectivity to Government institutions and major towns. The project was handed over in 2010 to the National Information Technology Authority–Uganda (NITA-U),
an autonomous Government agency under the Ministry of ICT and National Guidance responsible for coordinating and promoting ICT development.
The NBI became operational in 2013/14, with subsequent phases expanding its fiber network to Government institutions and other public facilities. Today, the infrastructure supports digital public services such as e-Tax and e-Visa.
This invisible infrastructure is an important part of Uganda’s digital story. Every video call, On-line service, digital payment or web page depends on networks, fiber, mobile towers, data systems and electricity working behind the screen.
Technology has also increasingly entered the relationship between citizens and the State. Government systems have moved some services on-line, while the national backbone has supported services such as e-tax, e-visa and other digital Government platforms. The scale of today’s connected Uganda shows just how far that journey has travelled.
By December 2025, Uganda had 47.1 million active mobile subscriptions, 36.3 million active mobile-money accounts and 18.5 million mobile Internet subscriptions. The same Uganda Communications Commission (UCC), figures recorded about 20 million smart phones in use.
These figures need to be read carefully. A mobile subscription is not the same as a unique person, because one individual can have more than one line. Even so, the numbers illustrate how deeply mobile and digital services have entered everyday life. The technology revolution is also moving beyond consumption.
Uganda increasingly wants to develop people and businesses that create digital products and services, rather than simply use technologies developed elsewhere. The Ministry of ICT and National Guidance’s Business Process Outsourcing and IT Services Job Creation Strategy, for example, sets an ambition of creating 100,000 direct jobs and building Uganda into a competitive global out-sourcing and IT-services destination by 2030.
At the same time, Artificial Intelligence (AI), cloud computing, digital financial services, cyber-security and other emerging technologies are opening a new phase of the country’s technology journey. Yet, the story of technological progress is not complete.
A connected Uganda does not mean an equally connected Uganda. The UCC has identified affordability, quality of service, digital inclusion, cyber-security and other barriers to ICT adoption as issues requiring continued attention. Its recent broadband mapping work also estimates that about 7.5 million Ugandans remain un-connected, particularly in rural and hard-to-reach areas.
For someone without an affordable smartphone, reliable electricity, adequate digital skills or a dependable network, the digital revolution can still feel distant.
There is another challenge. As more of life moves on-line, the consequences of technology failures and abuse become greater. Fraud, data breaches, cyber-attacks, misinformation and the misuse of personal information can turn technological convenience into personal and economic risk.
That means Uganda’s next technology challenge is not simply to connect more people. It is to make connectivity useful, affordable, reliable and safe. The direction of travel is already extending beyond terrestrial networks.
In May 2026, UCC signed an operational license agreement with Starlink,
clearing the way for the satellite Internet provider to begin operations in Uganda. It is an image that captures the distance Uganda’s technology story has travelled.
At independence, computing was associated with large machines, specialist operators and Government offices. Today, a Ugandan can access the Internet from a smart phone, transfer money across the country in seconds and, increasingly, connect through infrastructure reaching from the ground to satellites in space.
