IT HURTS! Crying banking agents curse top banks, Bankers body, Jabel’s ABC over their withheld money
On the morning of January 1st, 2021, Mutambi (another name withheld), the proprietor of Mutambi Cash Point Solutions dealing in mobile money services and agent banking (Stanbic bank) and based in Matugga, Wakiso district, woke up and went about his business normally.
In the course of the day, using his account number 90300***, he made a transaction which would end up affecting his business.
Through agent banking, he sent Sh250000 to an account of Muzamiru (another name withheld), a customer.
Muzamiru did not receive the money. Mutambi checked his account balance and indeed realized that the money had not been deducted.
This prompted him to make a second transaction and this time the money was sent to Muzamiru.
Unaware to him, he had made a double transaction. This implied he sent Muzamiru Sh500,000 instead of Sh250000.
He realized this anomaly later in the evening while balancing business books.
He complained to Stanbic bank’s Kawempe branch and he was told it was due to a system failure on the side of Stanbic bank and her agent banking platform facilitators Agent Banking Company of Uganda (ABC).
Richard Jabel, a long time staffer at Stanbic bank, is ABC’s Chief Executive Officer, whose offices are based in Muyenga, a Kampala suburb.
For the uninitiated, banks in Uganda use ABC for agent banking services under the Shared Agent Banking model (SABS). The shared platform enables interoperability of agent banking across all the commercial banks. This implies, a banking agent of Stanbic bank can send money to DFCU, Standard Chartered, Equity, Centenary banks accounts and vice versa.
Apart from cash deposits and withdrawals, ABC’s agent banking platform also offers bill payments (UMEME, NWSC, Airtime, and Data), collections (school fees, NSSF and URA), and money transfer solutions among others.
BACK TO THE TRANSACTION
Stanbic bank’s Kawempe officials advised Mutambi to contact the client—Muzamiru to resend part of the money (Sh250000) which was sent to him in error.
He instead reportedly started playing hide and seek games. Stanbic blocked his account to recover the money. His account was later unblocked after deducting the said money.
NOT YET OVER
The deducted money never reached Mutambi’s account. Stanbic bank told Mutambi that the money was sent to another bank.
Centenary bank in turn said the money is being held by Jabe’s ABC—agent banking platform.
Three years later, Mutambi is yet to receive this money and wonders who is to blame.
Mutambi is not alone.
Esther (another name withheld), also from Kawempe lost about Sh3m in similar circumstances under Stanbic bank and ABC and she has since quit the agent banking business following this loss.
Deborah, a former agent operating in Kawempe also lost about Sh15m under Stanbic bank’s enabled agent banking. She quit the business.
Whereas those affected most operate under Stanbic bank, we have also learnt that several banking agents using other banks are also not happy due to losses of similar nature.
However, reclaiming this money from banks and Richard Jabel’s Agent Banking Company of Uganda (ABC) has always been a hurdle.
ABC’s Richard Jabel has been contacted for a comment but he is yet to respond, two months later.
Ironically, a source at Uganda Bankers’ Association (UBA), an umbrella organization for licensed commercial banks supervised by Bank of Uganda told this publication that they are aware of this challenge and they are yet to find a solution for it.
“Where does this money go? Why is it so difficult to reverse it to the loss making banking agent?” wonders one of the affected banking agents.
To support the Financial Institutions (Amendment) Act, the commercial banks currently operating in Uganda, UBA, in 2016, agreed to form a Shared Agent Banking System and that’s how ABC was birthed.
Watch this space for more curses from banking agents!…HAVE YOU EVER BEEN TREATED UNFAIRLY BY BANK OF UGANDA, UGANDA’S COMMERCIAL BANKS, MICROFINANCE & DEPOSIT TAKING INSTITUTIONS, SACCOS… CALL/TEXT/WHATSAPP 0777959024 OR EMAIL: redpeppertips@gmail.com WITH AS MUCH EVIDENCE AS POSSIBLE.
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