Social Media was filled with rumors today that implied that all Mobile Money agents had been instructed not to dish out money to anyone without a Valid National Identification card just like it is done in Banks and other financial institutions. This moved could help fight fraudsters who use the financial system to withdraw funds, this could also enable the telecoms and government to know who is withdrawing funds. No telecom company has come out to validate this story as of writing this article.
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This wouldn’t be a new system, as it is already the norm in Kenya– in order to do any M-PESA or Airtel Money transaction at an Agent outlet, one is required to produce their original identification document, i.e., National ID or Kenyan Passport. According to the rumor, unlike Kenya where using your ID applies to both Cashout and Cashin, here in Uganda it only applies to withdrawal.
In Kenya, for each transaction, the agent enters the following information: the M-PESA balance, the date, agent ID, transaction ID, transaction type (customer deposit or withdrawal, agent cash rebalancing), value, customer phone number, customer name, and the customer’s national ID number. The bulk of this information is copied from the agent’s confirming SMS. Customers are then asked to sign the log for each transaction, which helps discourage fraud and also gives agents a way to offer first-line customer care for customers querying previous transactions.
Techjaja is yet to verify this. So what do you think, if this directive were to be passed by the government to the telecoms do you think it would work in Uganda? Leave us a comment below.
