Malawi Communications Regulatory Authority (MACRA) has urged players in digital financial services to raise security in order to protect Malawians from fraudsters.
MACRA’s Director General, Daud Suleman said this on Thursday during the opening of a Digital Financial Service Security Clinic in Lilongwe.
Suleman said there is need for such players as banks and mobile money service providers to find ways and means of strengthening security and ensuring that Malawians are safe from fraudsters when transacting through digital platforms.
“Almost all banks in Malawi provide online banking. We also have two major mobile money providers, TNM Mpamba and Airtel Money.
“On the other hand, we have 12 million Malawians who are able to do transactions through banks and mobile money. Therefore, the more people are exposed to digital financial services, the higher the risk to fraud,” Suleman said.
Suleman said as one way of limiting cases of fraud, MACRA has revised the SIM card regulations that will require re-registration of all SIM cards and handsets so that they should be linked to biometric print and to national identity cards.
“Further to that, we are also rolling out a system that we call Central Equipment Identify Register. The system will register all handsets against national identity cards against a person. It will also set a limit of registration to ten SIM cards per person,” he said.
He further said the system will not allow any person who wants to register more than ten SIM cards and that it will automatically shut down any handset involved in fraud activities.
In his remarks, Programme Coordinator for International Telecommunications Unit (ITU), Vijay Mauree, said the Clinic aimed at sharing security recommendations developed at international telecommunications, with regard to securing the telecommunications infrastructure and repayment system infrastructure when it comes to digital financial services.
Reported by Sellah Singini
