BY KATUMBA GERALD.
geraldkatumba06@gmail.com
The Criminal Investigations Directorate (CID) has summoned Absa Bank management to help with investigations into electronic fraud transaction in its system in which customers have lost huge amount of Money.
Superintendent of Police Joel Ntabu, a CID officer at Central Police Station in Kampala, on April 18 directed Absa Uganda director of retail banking, Mr Musa Jallow, to appear before a detective on Tuesday, April 23.
According to SP Ntabu said in the April 18 summonses that the CID were investigating a case of electronic fraud involving a matter logged by Absa Bank under reference 23778598.
The bank is understood to have reported a suspected fraudulent transactions on account no. 6007916351 in the names of Andrew Musimenta.
SP Ntabu did not give the detail of the case and Mr Godfrey Opito, the detective handling the case at CPS in Kampala, said he was not at liberty to divulge the detail to the media.
Sources told TV 10 Gano Mazima that the electronic fraud involves “huge withdrawals” from Mr Musimenta’s account, transactions he denies undertaking.
However, sources could not immediately ascertain the financial figures while it also remains unclear why it is the bank that reported the alleged fraud to CID instead of the customer.
Head of communication and customer experience at Absa Bank Robinah Mukasa Kamuntu, on Monday evening shared an official statement in which the bank said it was unable to comment on individual customer cases due to strict confidentiality standards.
The local banking sector has been shaken lately with another Shs65 billion loan financing fraud at another bank currently being investigated. Absa, formerly Barclays Bank, was founded in 1991 and is headquartered in Johannesburg, South Africa.
It is a subsidiary of Absa Group Limited, with operations in 12 African countries and representative offices in two other African countries.
In April last year, Absa Bank released its financial results for the year ended December 2022 in which it indicated that its profits grew by 28.9 percent.The bank’s profit after tax grew to Shs141 billion attributed to a 12.5 percent growth in revenue by Shs46 billion.
Last August, the bank reported that its customer numbers grew 4 percent to 11.8 million (globally) in the first quarter of 2023.
The Banking sector in Uganda is experiencing a wave of Electronic Fraud where customers Money disappears from their accounts without their consent, complaints from customers are becoming common in almost all Banks around the country.
