Housing Finance Bank suspends NWSC Payment system

Customers who have been using Housing Finance Bank to clear water bills have to wait longer or think of plan B for now. This has been confirmed by the bank in a text message sent to clients on Monday 11/7/2022—there is a ‘temporary NWSC downtime’ and they can’t do much about it.

HFB says there is an ongoing investigation during this period with speculations they could be the latest victims of cyber-attack.

“Dear Customer, there is a temporary NWSC downtime on the HFB Mobile Banking platform that is being investigated. We regret any inconveniences caused,” reads a text message to clients.

Text message sent to HFB clients today

A highly placed source further informs us that of recent many clients have been complaining about the HFB online platforms. There is an allegation that some clients have been cheated while paying the NWSC bill using the Mobile banking system.

“Some clients pay for a water bill, money is immediately deducted off their accounts but never receive the transactional receipt. Also, the payment never reflects on the accounts of NWSC,” says one of the affected clients.

Also clients using the same platform to pay electricity bills have reportedly faced the same challenges.

The Uganda Police Annual Crime and Road Safety Report of 2019 showed more than 41 billion Ugandan Shillings ($11m) was lost to criminals through cybercrimes including swapping SIM cards and hacking digital financial accounts.