Amidst the debate on the Electronic Fiscal Receipting and Invoicing Solutions (EFRIS) in parliament and ahead of Museveni’s meeting with the traders today, reports indicate Bank of Uganda has tightened in some regulations.
According to reports, the Bank of Uganda which now directly supervises Mobile Money and Airtel in Uganda, customers intending to make transactions beyond one million will be required to present their National IDs to the Mobile Money agents before processing such transactions.
The bank directive applies on both withdraws and deposits on the Mobile Money and Airtel platforms. According to the Daily Monitor, the bank is implementing this as a compliance measure under Section (1)b of the National Payments Systems Act, 2020 and Regulation 7 (h) of the National Payment Systems (Agents) Regulations, 2021.
“Therefore, in compliance with Section 55 (1)b of the National Payments Systems Act, 2020 and Regulation 7 (h) of the National Payment Systems (Agents) Regulations, 2021, all financial transactions involving Shs1m or more that are carried out at authorized agent after the holder’s identity has been verified using a valid national ID (for Ugandans), passport, refugee ID/attestation letter, or alien ID (for foreigners)”
This is intended to curb fraud where many Banks and the Telecom companies have reported hacking of their systems and money stolen is withdrawn via agents. The practice of presenting National IDS to verify mobile money transactions is new in Uganda but in neighboring countries like Kenya and Tanzania, this started long time ago for Airtel Money, Mpesa on Safaricom and Mpesa on Vodacom.