THE AFRICAN BUSINESS FORTUNE- OPINION
there were no people to sell to,” one trader said.
Many businesses in town have a daily turnover of more than Shs 100m, according to some traders. And losing five days because of elections was just untenable.
The businesses also felt the impact of the return of street vendors. In the lead to the polls, government allowed street vendors back onto the streets in what was seen as a way to lure them to vote NRM.
But this came at a cost for some traders, who incurred high operational costs, but were forced to compete for customers with street vendors. Mobile money
The mobile money agents and users also lost out. The platform was blocked from the morning of February 18 to 22. For every transaction that takes place, an agent earns a commission from Shs 100 upwards, depending on the amount transacted. One agent in Wandegeya told us she used to work on more than 100 people a day. According to Bank of Uganda, daily transactions worth Shs 80bn go
through mobile money. So for the four days, at least Shs 320bn was not transacted. For the users, the inconvenience was unbearable since the blockade was done without prior warning.
There were rumours that telecoms were compensated for the loss, although The Observer couldn’ t independently verify this. For agents and users, however, it was certainly bad. Uganda Revenue Authority( URA
The Ugandan tax body was one of the losers.
For every mobile money transaction, a levy of 10 per cent is collected. Uganda Revenue Authority failed to recover at least Sh 8bn each day that the mobile money system remained off, an amount more than Sh 5bn government gave the Uganda Tourism Board to market Uganda in the 2014 / 15 financial year. This year the board got Ush 30bn.
Yet, as people feared to go town to shop or access other services such as banks, the revenue agency was not working.
For every transaction at the bank or receipt issued at a shop in town, there is value added tax charged. For the election week, where business was low in town, there were ripple effects on taxes collected.
Another loss came in the form of a slowdown in investment. For every investment that comes into the country, it is an opportunity for tax.
In 2015, according to Bank of Uganda, foreign direct investment into the country dropped by $ 200m( Shs 682bn) and this was due to the uncertainty surrounding the elections. WINNERS Media
The media firms were looked at as some of the winners in this election. From radio to television stations to newspapers, the election came with good news in the form of advertising revenue from government, civil society, and some candidates, and the electoral commission relating to the promotion of elections.
The Citizens’ Coalition for Electoral Democracy in Uganda( CCEDU) ran constant adverts for people to come out and vote. The EC ran campaigns to sensitize on how to vote.
All this meant income for the media firms, although they still lost out on the private sector revenue as many companies decided to remain cautious.
The Electoral Commission declares Yoweri Kaguta Museveni elected President of the Republic of Uganda on the presidential elections held on February 18,...
8 THE AFRICAN BUSINESS FORTUNE MAY- JUNE 2016