Huge impact of Uganda’s internet shutdown

Nairobi – When Uganda ordered an internet shutdown on the eve of the presidential election, groundnut seller Susan Tafumba’s trade collapsed.

The 34 year old sells groundnuts at Kampala’s Nakawa market, but much of her business now comes through a mobile phone app that customers use to order goods to be delivered to them by motorcycle taxis.

“Usually the app gets us more profit than those people who come on a daily basis to the market, but we lost customers,” said Tafumba, one of countless small traders whose increasingly tech-dependent livelihoods were hit by the shutdown.

“Now, we are working normally after the internet came back. I am waiting for orders to start coming in,” she said, adding that she lost about 300 000 Ugandan shillings (about R1 200).

The East African nation lifted the blackout on Monday, more than 100 hours after imposing it the day before the 14 January elections.

Authorities apologised for the inconvenience and said the shutdown was to avoid outside interference in the election, which long-time leader Yoweri Museveni was declared to have won against popular singer-turned-politician Bobi Wine.

Digital rights campaigners said the move hit earnings and left citizens unable to pay bills, send money to family, move around.

A ban on social media platforms, which authorities said were biased, remains in place, but they are accessible through virtual private networks (VPN).

“The shutdown meant denying people access to their source of livelihood,” said Felicia Anthonio, campaigner for the #KeepItOn, a global movement that fights against internet shutdowns at digital rights group, Access Now.

“Businesses in the formal and informal sector, education, healthcare, the media, civil society groups and many others that increasingly rely on the internet and digital platforms to keep their activities going were hugely impacted.”

Internet freedom monitor Netblocks calculates that the almost five-day shutdown cost the Ugandan economy $9 million (about R139.7 million).

This includes mobile money transactions – which many Ugandans rely on for payments – as well as e-commerce, airline bookings and app-based taxi services.

The Financial Technology and Service Providers Association estimates that companies in the sector lost at least 66 billion Ugandan shillings daily during the shutdown. –