Currency and formatting
- Currency
- Ugandan Shilling (UGX)
- Symbol
- USh — placed before the amount
- Decimal places
- 0
- Formatted example
- USh 123,457
- Thousands separator
- ,
- Decimal separator
- .
- Digit grouping
- threes (3)
- Live rate
- No central-bank source publishes UGX yet
Watch out: UGX has no minor unit. Treating it like a two-decimal currency overcharges by 100×.
Tax
- 0% — zero rated
Payment methods in Uganda
Roughly ordered by real-world use — not by what a card processor would prefer you offer.
- 01 mtn momo
- 02 airtel money
- 03 card
Card schemes that work domestically: visa, mastercard. 3-D Secure is standard practice; strong customer authentication is not legally mandated.
Locale
- Primary
- en-UG
- Official languages
- Swahili, English
- Direction
- left-to-right
- Date format
- DD/MM/YYYY
- Measurement
- metric
- GDPR applies
- no
Phone numbers
- Calling code
- +256
- Mobile format
- +256 7XX XXX XXX
- Digits
- 9
Uganda: common questions
What currency does Uganda use?
Uganda uses the Ugandan Shilling (UGX), symbol USh. It has no minor unit — amounts are whole numbers, so USh 123,457 is a complete price.
How many decimal places does UGX have?
UGX has 0 decimal places. Charging with the wrong number of minor units is a 100× error, so this is worth getting right.
What is the VAT rate in Uganda?
The standard VAT rate in Uganda is 18.00%. Prices are displayed tax-inclusive.
What payment methods are used in Uganda?
The methods that matter in Uganda, in rough order of use: mtn momo, airtel money, card.
What is the dialling code for Uganda?
Uganda's country calling code is +256. Mobile numbers are formatted +256 7XX XXX XXX (9 digits after the country code).
API_
Get this from the API instead
Everything on this page is one call away — plus live FX, fraud signals and the visitor's own detected country.
curl "https://api.localesense.com/v1/countries/UG" \
-H "Authorization: Bearer ls_live_..."
Algeria
Angola
Benin
Botswana
Burkina Faso
Burundi