Mini Poll: Should telecom companies be placed under BOU supervision?

Telecom companies in Uganda, are currently regulated by the Uganda Communications Commission (UCC). But, due to the emerging fintech innovations– MTN Uganda, Airtel among others are operating money transfer services without a major binding law unlike other financial institutions like banks.

In order to address this issue, parliament is enacting a law to resolve this particularly putting up protections for Ugandans using the system. Hon Henry Musasizi The Chairman, Parliamentary Committee and also MP Rubanda East on Finance said that;

Currently, there is no legal framework. In electronic money that is where Mobile money comes in Uber comes in, Safe Boda, Payway, all those.

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Parliamentary Committee on Finance has concluded hearing on what will be known as the National Payment Systems Bill 2019. Currently over UGX 20 billion remains unclaimed for from Mobile Money Operators and this consists of those who died, those who left the country and there is also a category of people who lose their numbers. All these leave some balance on their mobile money accounts which still remain unclaimed.

Once the National Payment Systems Bill 2019 becomes law, telecom companies will be licensed by Bank of Uganda (BoU). This means that only telecom companies like MTN, Africell, or Airtel will be their ones to get the license but not the vendors or dealers.

ALSO READ: How to avoid being a victim of Mobile Money fraud

The Central bank will, therefore, establish a data center that will be used to monitor all mobile money or electronic money transfers. The law also intends to address challenges in mobile money use that deal with fraud. Once the data center is set up by BOU, telecom companies will be required to submit all their Mobile Money subscribers and this means very electronic transfer will ultimately be monitored by the government. They will be able to see the number of transactions made in a day, month, or a year at any given time.

In our mini poll today we ask do you think telecom companies be placed under BOU supervision? You can also leave us a comment below