MTN, Airtel, and Stanbic Bank have temporarily suspended mobile money services in Uganda after unprecedented technical challenges.
According to a report by the Ugandan publication, The Observer, “Yet-to-be identified hackers broke into Uganda’s mobile money systems and made off with billions of shillings last week.
“The hackers compromised the system of a third-party integrating service provider, Pegasus Technologies which links the mobile money systems of telecoms with local and international banks and other financial providers.
“Unconfirmed reports indicate that over Shs 1.5 billion might have been lost by Airtel while MTN being the mobile money giant is believed to have lost more than that amount.“
Consequently, the bank and telecommunication companies decided to temporarily suspend mobile money services in the country.
In a joint statement announcing the suspension, the firms apologised for the inconvenience that this has caused customers while re-assuring them that the incident did not have any impact on balances.
“Stanbic Bank Uganda, MTN Uganda, and Airtel Uganda inform the public and their customers that on Saturday 3 October 2020, a third-party service provider experienced a system incident that impacted Bank to Mobile Money transactions. All Bank to Mobile Money/Wallet services have since been temporarily suspended.
“This system incident has had no impact on any balances on both Bank and Mobile Money accounts. Our technical teams are analysing the incident and will restore services as soon as possible.
“We apologise to all customers for any inconvenience that this has caused and reiterate our commitment to delivering seamless banking and mobile money services.”
