Central Bank calls for tight security in mobile banking

May 07, 2013

Bank of Uganda has urged banks to ensure that they operate a secure and robust mobile banking platform to protect customers’ mobile bank accounts.

By Vision Reporter

Bank of Uganda has urged banks to ensure that they operate a secure and robust mobile banking platform to protect customers’ mobile bank accounts.

“A number of banks are now offering mobile banking products. It is in light of this that I re-iterate that every new product comes with its attendant risks. It is imperative that potential risks are identified and appropriate mitigation measures developed,” Ben Sekabira, the acting executive director supervision, Bank of Uganda, said.

He was speaking at the launch of ELMA, a mobile banking platform on which Centenary Bank’s CenteMobile is hosted and operated.

Sekabira urged Centenary Bank and its partner Craft Silicon to continuously review and update the risk management systems around the ELMA platform to protect their customers from fraud and hackers.

“A reliable, secure and efficient platform is extremely important to maintain customer confidence in the mobile banking services and facilitate adoption of usage of these services by the wider population,” he added.

On the other hand, the Central Bank commended the partnership between the two institutions, noting that such collaborations promote the growth of banks’ businesses and the provision of convenient banking services to customers.

Fabian Kasi, the Centenary Bank managing director, said the launch of the platform will interest more players in the banking industry to sign up as a demonstration of the bank’s commitment to enhance financial inclusion in Uganda.

“Today, the penetration of mobile telecommunication networks in the most remote villages of Uganda makes it possible for Centenary Bank to serve millions of unbanked people in those locations,” Kasi said.

Following the launch of CenteMobile and ELMA in Uganda, the bank is now eyeing 17 million Ugandans with mobile phones, including the 8.9 million registered mobile money customers.

“We believe with this, the number of accounts in the industry will also increase from the current approxiomately four million within a relatively short period,” said Kasi.

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