Tag: GreatLakesNews

{Kampala- More than half of Uganda’s mobile money agents have reported the highest incidents of fraud among the eight countries studied, a new report reveals.}

The report by Helix Institute of Digital Finance and Financial Sector Deepening Uganda (FSDU) says Uganda’s fraud rate stands at 53 per cent, closely followed by Tanzania at 42 per cent and Kenya at 22 per cent.

The Agent Network Accelerator Survey (ANA) report on Wednesday at Sheraton Kampala Hotel is based on a research carried out on 2,288 mobile money agents interviewed across the country.

“In spite of provider and regulator efforts, the percentage of agents who report having personally or through one of their employees experienced fraud has in the last year doubled since 2013 and the levels are higher than in any other ANA country,” the report reads in part.

Despite these challenges, the report faults the country for the low regulatory compliance saying on average, only two per cent of customers show an ID when performing a transaction.

According to the report, the Uganda digital finance market is majorly split between two players. It also highlights that there has been a drop in exclusivity compared to 2013 as mobile money agents now serve more than two providers.
However, it notes that the level of agents assisted over the counter transactions is still high for mobile network operators.

It highlights that since the Airtel-Warid merger in 2013, the Airtel combined market share presence has increased from 31 per cent in 2013 to 42 per cent in 2015.

As a result, the market leader MTN’s share of market presence dropped from 63 per cent in 2013 to 57 per cent in 2015, and the shares of other providers combined dropped from five per cent to one per cent.

The MTN senior mobile money operations manager, Ms Juliet Tumuzoire, says fraud is also still prevalent in the traditional banking system. She attributes the growth in fraud to inability of mobile money agents to use new technologies.

“A percentage of agents are not technologically savvy. They seem to trust anyone very fast and more so there is an element of greed as they are willing to sell their right over greed,” Ms Tumuzoire said.

She says companies are working closely with police under the fraud committee for technology service providers to support their users.

Internally, Ms Tumuzoire says, the remedy is in doing more awareness among mobile money subscribers and agents.
Mr Richard Yego, the acting Airtel money director, says most agents are not aware of the fraud incidences and how they can impact their business.

“Technological advancement in mobile money services has given fraudsters a leeway to rob agents. As we innovate, fraudsters take advantage of the new products launched and rob the unsuspecting public within the first weeks,” he says

Mr Benon Katende, in charge of regional channels for Finca Africa, says they need to strengthen the onboarding process because that is the entry point. He adds: “They should invest a lot of resources in analytics which are able to pick up a lot of things like suspicious patterns, abnormal transactions, and registrations. They need to strengthen their internal procedures in terms of customer data, laws and integrity.”

Earlier this year, Parliament passed the Financial Institutions Act Amendment 2016, which authorised banks to appoint agents. The Act is yet to be operationalised.

{Prosecution has completed investigations against the Queen of Ivory who is charged with organised crimes and unlawful possession of 5.4bn/- government trophies.}

Principal State Attorney Faraja Nchimbi told Principal Resident Magistrate Huruma Shaidi at the Kisutu Resident Magistrate’s Court in Dar es Salaam yesterday that the prosecution was ready to proceed with the trial of 66-year old Chinese, Yang Feng Clan.

“We just pray for time to file the consent of the Director of Public Prosecution and the certificate conferring this court with jurisdiction to hear the economic case,” Mr Nchimbi, who was assisted by State Attorney Paul Kadushi, appealed before the court. The magistrate granted the prosecution’s request and adjourned the matter for another mention on September 23.

The suspect appeared before the court on October 7, 2015 to face the charges. She was not allowed to enter plea to the charges because the DPP had not consented to the court to hear the matter. In the case, Clan is charged alongside two other Tanzanian businessmen, Salivius Matembo (39) and Manase Philemon (39).

All of them are in remand. The prosecution alleges that between January 1, 2000 and May 22, last year in the city, all the accused traded on the government trophies. It is alleged that the trio bought and sold 706 pieces of elephant tusks weighing 1,889 kilogrammes, valued at 5,435,865,000/-, the property of United Republic of Tanzania, without a permit from the director of wildlife.

The prosecution alleged that within the same period and place, Clan organised, managed and financed the criminal racket by collecting, transporting or exporting and selling the elephant tusks without having permit of the director of wildlife or CITES.

Within the period and place, Matembo and Philemon assisted and directed the business of collecting, transporting and selling the trophies, reaping huge benefit that further promoted the criminal racket’s objectives.

Philemon is facing a separate count of escaping from lawful custody. The prosecution told the court that the accused committed the offence on May 21, last year, at Sinza Palestina Hospital in Kinondoni District in the city. Heavily armed criminals kill elephants and rhinos for their tusks, largely due to increasing demand in China for ivory ornaments and folk medicines.

It is reported further that most of the tusks smuggled from the east African country end up in Asia. International trade in ivory was banned in 1989 after the population of elephants dropped from the millions in the mid-20th century to about 600,000 by the end of the 1980s.

Some members of parliament were reported to have said in 2013 that poaching was out of control with an average of 30 elephants being killed for their ivory every day.

In August 2011, Tanzanian authorities seized over 1,000 elephant tusks hidden in sacks of dried fish at Zanzibar port and destined for Malaysia.

{More than 100 opposition fighters from South Sudan crossed the border into Congo “in extremely bad shape” and were evacuated to health facilities for medical treatment, the United Nations said Wednesday.}

Spokesman Stephane Dujarric told reporters that the United Nations is consulting with the governments of Congo and South Sudan “with a view of finding solutions for these combatants.”

Dujarric said the supporters of opposition leader Riek Machar were found in the area around Garamba near the South Sudan border and evacuated by the U.N. peacekeeping mission in Congo “so they can receive urgent medical assistance, pending their voluntary disarmament.”

South Sudan gained independence from Sudan in 2011, but it was rocked by a civil war that began in December 2013 when government forces loyal to President Salva Kiir, an ethnic Dinka, battled rebels led by Machar, his former deputy who is a Nuer. At least 50,000 people were killed in the fighting and over 2 million people were displaced.

A peace deal reached in August 2015 which established a unity government has been violated regularly by fighting.

Machar, who was vice-president again, fled the capital Juba in July after fighting with forces loyal to Kiir, which left hundreds dead. Machar then slipped across the border to Congo in mid-August, also needing medical treatment, and is now in Sudan. Kiir fired him as vice-president.

Dujarric said the condition of a number of Machar’s recently arrived fighters “was truly critical, and it was an issue of life and death.”

“On humanitarian grounds, I think we had no choice” but to get them medical care, he said.

{Ms Agnes Nakitto, a resident of Kisugu in Makindye Division, said she had to fetch water from an unprotected spring well.}

Some residents in Kampala and surrounding areas yesterday turned to contaminated spring wells after the National Water and Sewage Corporation (NWSC) shut down its systems in Ggaba and Muyenba areas.

Although the on-going shutdown to allow upgrading of the water system in Kampala started on Monday and was expected to last for only 14 hours, it stretched further, affecting residents in parts of Mukono, Wakiso and Kampala.

By 2pm yesterday, some areas in Kampala, Wakiso and Mukono districts had no water. The water body soon had its social media accounts inundated with demands for an explanation.
Although Mr Samuel Apedel, the NWSC spokesperson, said they had announced the shutdown through several media outlets, he apologised for the delay and promised to have the problem sorted out as soon as possible.
But for Ms Agnes Nakitto, a resident of Kisugu in Makindye Division, she had to fetch water from an unprotected spring well.

“We have two babies and their clothes have to be washed twice a day. After using the little water we had reserved in the jerry cans, we resorted to spring wells. We had no choice,” she said.

Several people were seen carrying jerry cans and walking to spring wells, including those condemned by the local authorities as “sources of waterborne diseases.”

Mr Apedel yesterday said they had completed the system configuration and that all affected areas would have water today.

He said the completion of the upgrades at Ggaba and Muyenga reservoirs will increase the daily water capacity in Kampala from the current 190 million litres to 240 million litres.

{President John Magufuli is today leading East African Community (EAC) Heads of State at an extraordinary meeting to be held at the State House in Dar es Salaam.}

The meeting will mainly concentrate on Tanzania’s reluctance in signing the Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) with the European Union (EU).

Tanzania has exclusively maintained that it will not append its signature on the agreement ‘’until the country’s demands that focus on the best interests of the people are met.’’

Addressing a news conference in Dar es Salaam yesterday, the Minister for Foreign Affairs and East African Cooperation, Dr Augustine Mahiga, said Tanzania would not sign the EPA agreement until crucial amendments are included in the agreement.

Among other issues that are delaying the signing of the agreement, Dr Mahiga said Tanzania wants to ensure that the country is currently focusing on the industrial economy as well as sorting out the effects that the country faces after the exit of Britain from the EU.

According to him, the EU was pushing for the EAC member states to sign that agreement that was drafted 14 years ago, whereas Kenya and Rwanda have already sealed their signatures on the Agreement. Uganda has expressed its intention to sign that agreement but it is waiting for today’s deliberations.

The agreement was expected to be signed by EAC member states as a block in July, this year, but it was pushed until October 1, after requests from the member countries. However, Dr Mahiga said the signing of EPA by Kenya and Rwanda meant nothing as it was supposed to be signed jointly as a block.

“This agreement is very strong and prior to signing we need to consider the EAC treaty and by signing differently we are likely to kill the EAC customs union,’’ he insisted.

The EAC Council of Ministers met in Arusha on Monday for more than 18 hours deliberating on the agreement, but they failed to agree on the joint signing. Therefore, all eyes and ears will be directed at State House today as Dr Magufuli leads the EAC top leaders to deliberate on the matter.

Apart from that, the EAC extraordinary meeting will also receive a report from the facilitator of the mediation on the Burundi crisis, former president Benjamin Mkapa. Mr Mkapa was in March named by the EAC Chairperson as the mediator for talks to end the long crisis in neighbouring Burundi.

He is today expected to present his report on the EAC heads of state meeting. Uganda’s Yoweri Museveni is the mediator of the crisis. The meeting will also receive a report on the steps taken to accomplish the official membership of South Sudan as member of the regional bloc.

According to Dr Mahiga, President Museven and Paul Kagame had confirmed their attendance. Mr Museveni was expected in the country yesterday while Mr Kagame is expected to arrive today morning.

Kenya’s Uhuru Kenyatta, Pierre Nkurunziza of Burundi and Salvar Kiir of South Sudan will send their representatives.

{Thirty-four judicial officers, including magistrates from different levels have been sacked for misconduct, the Chief Justice (CJ), Mr Mohamed Chande Othman, announced in Dar es Salaam yesterday.}

He told a news conference that sacked officers include 11 magistrates from the resident magistrate to primary court magistrate level, while others were ordinary officers serving in different capacities within the judiciary.

Justice Othman said he had reached such decision after receiving two different reports on acceleration of cases from the primary court to the Court of Appeal presented by High Court Registrar Ilvin Mgeta and Court of Appeal Registrar John Kahyoza respectively.

The head of the judiciary further pointed out that the Judicial Service Commission (JSC) was also considering the fate of about 28 to 34 other magistrates who were acquitted of corruption cases.

“We have also filed disciplinary complaints of 34 other magistrates before the Disciplinary Committee headed by the Principal Judge. These magistrates were previously charged with criminal offences – but they won their cases,” he explained.

The CJ pointed out that though the number of officers sacked could be seen as small compared to the total number of about 6,406 of total employees within the judiciary, they were committed to ensure they weed out all irresponsible persons within the institution to protect its good image.

Among reasons behind the disciplinary measures taken against the officers include using court seals for personal benefit against the law and procedure, helping individuals to open cases in two different courts, which amounts to abuse of court process and judicial mischief.

The CJ also explained that advocates, who are also essential partners in the administration of justice, have not been spared either – as the Advocates Disciplinary Committee, headed by a High Court judge, was scrutinising 88 cases filed by different people against such members of the bar. “We have directed the committee to fast-track the hearing of cases to ensure justice is done on time.

It sat in March and June to discuss the matter.

Hopefully, such complaints will be determined and as soon as possible,” he stressed. The report presented by the Registrar of the High Court on progress of cases from the primary court to the high court level shows that the achievement has reached 100 per cent.

Registrar Mgetta pointed out that at the end of last year; they inherited a total of 66,448 unresolved cases.

Between January and August, this year, he said, about 167,855 cases were opened countrywide, while 197,794 cases have been disposed off within the same period, while only 55,711 cases were still pending. Regarding the Court of Appeal records, Registrar Kahyoza disclosed that cases inherited from last year were 2,378.

Referral cases opened between January and August, this year, were 980, while those determined to finality were 957 cases, which is about 97 per cent of the work successfully accomplished.