Uganda: Facebook threatens to suspend proposed projects as online commerce platform claims subdued business due to social media tax
"Facebook joins Uganda social media tax affray"
The falling out over Uganda’s recently introduced social media tax could intensify after Facebook warned it will hold back infrastructure investments worth millions of dollars it was planning in the country. Kojo Boakye, Africa public policy manager at Facebook, said they have informed the Uganda Communications Commission that they will be taking their investments elsewhere. Mr Boakye said the model on which they based their investment plan in Uganda will be affected by the tax. A study by Research ICT Solutions found that Ugandans spend a monthly average of Ush9,000 ($2.40) on voice calls, messaging and the Internet.
The introduction of a monthly tax of Ush6,000 ($1.6) on the most widely used Internet option is likely to hurt players in the digital services business. This business, experts say, was not doing so well, and the decision to reduce the number of people on social media will further hurt digital services...Jumia, formerly known as Africa Internet Group, is a system of online commerce, marketplaces and classifieds websites and applications created in 2012...The tax will affect them as some people could abandon social media, Mr Kawamara said. “A lot of businesses and our customers have been using social media, as their virtual address,” he added.
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