Kenyan financial institutions and banks have been challenged to collaborate in efforts to clamp down on increasing cases of mobile money fraud and cybercrime.
According to Kenya’s director of public prosecution, lack of intelligence sharing within the sector had enabled fraudsters and hackers to get siphon cash from unsuspecting customers.
Speaking during the 4th mobile money fraud forum, Noordin Haji, director of Public Prosecutions said collaborative efforts are crucial in the fight against the crime which he said is rife in the east African nation.
“There is need to include critical components of mobile money and fraud prevention strategy in order to collaboratively fight this crime which is evolving by the day,” Haji said.
The country’s top prosecutor noted that there was need to fortify governance and law enforcement to fight crime.
While measures have been put in place to prosecute criminals, Haji noted that there was need to train officers and share intelligence which will be necessary to curb the crimes.
The forum was organized by Safaricom which runs the region’s largest mobile money transfer platform M-Pesa.
Safaricom chief corporate security officer Nicholas Mulila said collaboration amongst banking and financial services players would weed out those keen to pry on vulnerable systems.
Safaricom itself has narrowed its mobile money losses over the year from 90 million shillings ($882,000) in 2017 to 20 million shillings in 2018.
“We will continue to collaborate with investigative arms of government to ensure that we seal all loopholes that may expose our customers to criminals,” Mulila said.
The mobile money fraud forum seeks to bring together stakeholders in financial and banking sectors as well as financial technology companies in an effort to discuss ways to curb mobile money fraud and cybercrime activities in the country.
