Uber shuts down operations in Uganda after 10 years
Uber has ended ride-hailing operations in Uganda, closing a decade-long presence in the Kampala market after a review of its business priorities and investment focus across Africa.
The company stopped accepting bookings on September 2, 2026, notifying customers directly through the app. Users who now attempt to book a ride are met with a message stating that none are available.
Uber entered Kampala in 2016, and over the following ten years helped normalise app-based ride-hailing in a city long served by boda bodas and informal taxis. The exit marks one of the more significant retrenchments by a global mobility platform in an East African market this year.
The company has not disclosed the number of drivers or riders affected by the withdrawal, nor whether it plans to re-enter the market in future. Local and regional ride-hailing platforms are expected to absorb demand left behind, with the underlying market Uber helped build unlikely to shrink even as the company itself steps back.
Uber’s Uganda exit follows a broader pattern among global technology platforms of consolidating operations around larger African economies such as Kenya, Nigeria and South Africa, where scale offsets thin margins and high operating costs.
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