Malawi amps up efforts against mobile money fraud

by MAVHUTO BANDA
LILONGWE – MALAWI is stepping up efforts to curb mobile money fraud, amid realisation lax regulations and lack of collaborations was fueling the scourge.

Stakeholders, including Parliament, regulators of the information and communications technology (ICT) sector, the central bank, mobile network operators, the Financial Intelligence Authority, banks, the Judiciary as well as Police and the Prisons, have come together to explore measures to address the problem.

They have joined forces under the aegis of the Mobile Money Fraud Prevention Task Force.

The Mobile Money Fraud Prevention workshop, organised by the taskforce, ended this past weekend in Salima, in the Central region.

Khumbo Phiri, chairperson of the task force, called on the stakeholders to collaborate.

“To comprehensively deal with the ever-evolving nature of mobile money fraud, we need every hand on the deck,” he said.

The official conceded that stakeholders had been lax as the scourge grew.

“Our key challenge is that we know the perpetrators, but we have not been able to stop them completely,” Phiri said.

Kingwell Liphuka, Chairperson of the Parliamentary Committee on Media and Communications, lamented mobile money fraud as a serious threat to trust and confidence in digital financial services.

“While mobile money has positively transformed the economy, fraudulent activities undermine this progress and place businesses and consumers at risk,” he said at the workshop.

Liphuka pledged the committee’s support to review legislation that promote innovative security measures and strengthen joint operations among task force agencies.

The committee also called for public awareness campaigns against fraud.

The Malawi Communications Authority reports that the country loses around K120 million early (US$117 000) monthly due to mobile money fraud.

The rise coincides the rapid expansion of mobile money usage, which now reaches over 70 percent of the population.

The Southern African country’s population is estimated at 22,7 million.

– CAJ News