How Mutabazi’s 10 Year Era at UCC Shaped Uganda’s Telecom Sector

Uganda Communications Commission (UCC) Executive Director, Godfrey Mutabazi has successfully completed his 10-year tenure at the helm of Uganda’s broadcasting, postal and telecommunications regulator.

On February 09, 2020, Mutabazi ended his two-term contract since his appointment in 2010 and has been replaced by Eng. Irene Kaggwa Sewankambo, who was the director of Engineering and Communications Infrastructure.

According to section 16 (3) of the UCC Act, 2013, the Executive Director shall hold office for five years and shall be eligible for reappointment for only one further term.

Despite concerns of unfair media regulatory policies that have been interpreted as ‘media gag’, Mutabazi’s 10-year reign at UCC has seen the telecom sector realize tremendous growth owing to the uptake of services as well as increased affordability of products.

The telecom sector has remained a top foreign direct investment destination with more than 35 multinationals at both the infrastructure and service layers, thus making it the number 1 tax year for over a decade now with a total tax contribution of Shs1.7trillion in the FY 2018/19 up from Shs837billion in FY2014/15. With Uganda’s economy growing at 6% per annum, the telecom sector that is regulated by UCC is growing at 17.4% per year resulting to an upsurge in gross revenue turnover from Shs1.4trillion in 2010 to Shs3.6trillion in 2019. This 157% increase is a reflection of the contribution the sector makes to the lives of the individuals and organizations in Uganda. In terms of contribution to GDP, the sector registered a 52% performance increase from 6% in FY2014/15 to 10.6% in FY2018/19.

It is in Mutabazi’s reign that Uganda is currently the only country in Africa with 4Generation (4G) coverage border to border with MTN recently launching 5G connectivity. Despite success in 4G coverage, the coverage is still hindered by the low accessibility of 4G handsets due to the affordability of these devices in the market. Currently, the central region has the biggest 4G coverage in the country with a user population of 53% and geographical coverage of only 9%. The central region is trailed by the Eastern region with population coverage of 15% against 4% geographical coverage. 4G connectivity remains lagging in Northern and Western Uganda with 1% geographical coverage and 2% respectively against a population of 9% and 8%.

With a current record of 24.9m mobile users and 17m mobile money active subscribers as compared to 5m active bank customers, there is no doubt that this industry has significantly contributed to financial inclusion in the country under the stewardship of Eng. Mutabazi. In terms of internet subscriptions, UCC has witnessed an increase of internet subscribers from 5.7m in 2014 to 15m in 2019 representing a 165% growth while the total telecom subscribers increased by 157% over the last 10years from 10m in 2009 to 25.7m in 2019.

During Mutabazi’s reign, UCC has continued to grow into a reputable and professional communications regulator attracting several recognitions and awards severally for performance in regulatory activities. In 2019, UCC won the ITU and UNHCR Award for initiatives towards promoting connectivity for refugees and also became the best ICT regulator in Africa in the same year as awarded by the Session of Africa Regulators. UCC’s outstanding performance also made Uganda the first country in Africa to successfully carry out Digital Migration in the broadcast sector. This has resulted in other Africa and international regulators such as South Africa, Nigeria, Ghana, and Brazil benchmarking on Uganda’s regulatory practices and frameworks in areas of; spectrum policy, cybersecurity, universal service fund, and licensing review policy.

Mutabazi’s reign at UCC has also seen Uganda continue to offer leadership in global ICT policy forums and has been elected to a number of technical and administrative leadership roles in several UN ICT Agencies, Peer Regulatory Forums, and Regional ICT Projects.

These include; the International Telecommunications Union (ITU), Universal Posta Union (UPU), International Telecommunications and Satellite Organization (ITSO), African Telecommunications Union (ATU), Pan African Postal Union (PAPU) and East African Communications Organization (EACO).