FALSE: LycaMobile company has not closed Uganda operations
The telco was still in business in the East African country as of 6 December 2023.
This post on X (formerly Twitter) claiming that LycaMobile, a telecommunications company, had closed business in Uganda is FALSE.
“Bought my lyca mobile sim card last week on Monday, bought the mifi on Friday, they unlocked it yesterday and immediately I bought the monthly 50Gb , they have all closed their operations in Uganda Today,” the post reads.
Similar claims have been posted by other X users, as seen here, here, here, and here.
PesaCheck skimmed through the Lyca Mobile X account to authenticate the claim’s validity and found a post on 4 December 2023, an indication that the company was still operating.
Additionally, PesaCheck contacted the company through a LycaMobile SIM card and Alex Ssemwanga, a customer service specialist denounced as false claims of the company closure.
“Please be assured that these claims are false and we have taken the necessary steps to address them. Our official statement is a true representation of our company’s stance,” Ssemwanga said.
Our further investigations established that LycaMobile’s internet service is operational.
PesaCheck looked into a post on X (formerly Twitter) claiming that LycaMobile, a telecommunications company, had closed business in Uganda and found it to be FALSE.
This post is part of an ongoing series of PesaCheck fact-checks examining content marked as potential misinformation on Facebook and other social media platforms.
By partnering with Facebook and similar social media platforms, third-party fact-checking organisations like PesaCheck are helping to sort fact from fiction. We do this by giving the public deeper insight and context to posts they see in their social media feeds.
Have you spotted what you think is fake or false information on Facebook? Here’s how you can report. And, here’s more information on PesaCheck’s methodology for fact-checking questionable content.
This fact-check was written by PesaCheck Fact-Checker Flavia Nassaka and PesaCheck Senior Copy Editor Cédrick Irakoze.
The article was approved for publication by PesaCheck Managing Editor Doreen Wainainah
PesaCheck is East Africa’s first public finance fact-checking initiative. It was co-founded by Catherine Gicheru and Justin Arenstein, and is being incubated by the continent’s largest civic technology and data journalism accelerator: Code for Africa. It seeks to help the public separate fact from fiction in public pronouncements about the numbers that shape our world, with a special emphasis on pronouncements about public finances that shape government’s delivery of Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) public services, such as healthcare, rural development and access to water / sanitation. PesaCheck also tests the accuracy of media reportage. To find out more about the project, visit pesacheck.org.
PesaCheck is an initiative of Code for Africa, through its innovateAFRICA fund, with support from Deutsche Welle Akademie, in partnership with a coalition of local African media and other civic watchdog organisations.
