Information reaching
ITRealms revealed that the apex Bank
of Uganda (BoU) has concluded plans to launch a major investigation into the
MTN Mobile Money dealings in the country. This was coming on the heels of The
Independent report.
An undisclosed
source stated that the Executive Director, Supervision in the Central Bank of
Uganda (BoU), has ordered Stanbic Bank to furnish his office with details of
MTN’s escrow account. The account is designated for money deposited by mobile
money agents who transact in mobile money, ITRealms
reports.
The Uganda Revenue Authority (URA) has also picked interest in
the case over some sales tax that MTN never paid, in addition, the central bank
is also interested in revelations that MTN Uganda was warned by Stanbic Bank,
which holds the escrow account over failure to activate a mandatory Anti-money
Laundering System on the Mobile Money system to which this account is central.
The Independent in Issue 359 recently reported extensively on
details of a case in which MTN is suing six former employees in the Anti-Corruption
Court for allegedly defrauding it of Shs16 billion, about N1,066,939,848billion.
MTN also accuses the six of electronic fraud, neglect of duty, unauthorised
disclosure, and embezzlement.
ITRealms further
gathered that under cross-examination, however, witnesses have revealed
questionable dealings by MTN and its staff in regards to transactions on its
MTN Mobile Money platform. Among the revelations is one that MTN, by
over-drawing its electronic-money account deliberately “creates money” on its
Mobile Money platform and that at one point this created money amounted to
Shs21 billion about N14,000,356,230billion which MTN and its staff and agents
transacted in, cashed, and benefited from.
It was reported that MTN had refused to give its side of the
story on the allegations. However, ITRealms
can authoritatively report that following publication of the story, MTN issued
a statement denying the allegations and described as “inaccurate and
deliberately false” the story published by The Independent.
Cyriacus NNAJI/ GEE
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