MTN Uganda has spoken out on the Saturday system breakdown— denying that no funds were lost on its clients’ accounts.
MTN Uganda last week experienced a huge system breakdown—with industry experts describing the incident as major hack on the company’s mobile money system.
During the system breakdown, all digital enabled transfer services including buying internet or voice bundles and other financial transactions completely went down after being slow for a couple of hours— plunging the company into a fresh crisis.
In a statement issued Monday March 14, MTN Uganda acknowledged the Saturday system breakdown—confirming that the disruption impacted transactions but said the system was later restored full service.
Whereas several MTN customers and agents claim to lost money in the process in self initiated transactions, the company has maintained its not aware of any funds lost.
“MTN Uganda reassures its esteemed customers and the general public that there has been no loss of funds on our clients’ accounts. We regret any inconveniences caused by the system intermittences. Customers may contact us through social media or our call center for further assistance related to their individual accounts” MTN Mobile Money Uganda Limited wrote.
About two years ago, MTN Uganda also experienced a huge system breakdown. Reports indicated that it was a result of a security breach on a consumer finance aggregator, Pegasus Technologies.
At least $3.2 million is estimated to have been stolen in last such incident with some reports quoting a much higher figure. The hackers used around 2,000 mobile SIM cards to gain access to the mobile money payment system, reports indicated. They then instructed the banks to transfer millions of dollars to telecommunication companies who then paid out mobile money to these different SIM cards across the country.
A majority of Ugandans have no formal bank account and rely on mobile money for its convenience. In some rural areas it is the only feasible option. Mobile money payments are used in agriculture, energy, health and education, among other sectors.
The Uganda Police Annual Crime and Road Safety Report of 2019 showed more than 41 billion Ugandan Shillings ($11m) was lost to criminals through cyber crimes including swapping SIM cards and hacking digital financial accounts last year