MTN and Airtel Uganda have resumed mobile money services after a week suspension following alleged hacking incident.
Last week, the two telecoms announced the temporary shutdown of the mobile money services after an incident in which hackers had accessed systems of a third-party service provider (Pegasus Technologies) thus impacting all bank to mobile money or wallet transactions.
In a joint statement signed by both Airtel and MTN, the two companies said they have resumed services and apologised to their esteem customers.
“MTN Uganda and Airtel Uganda wish to inform the public and their customers that mobile money services between the two networks have resumed. Customers can now send and receive money across both networks,” the statement reads
“We apologise to all customers for any inconvenience this may have caused and reiterate our commitment to delivering secure and seamless mobile money services,” the statement adds.
MTN and Airtel, which control at least more than 90 per cent of the mobile money market hold escrow accounts with Stanbic Bank and the two telecoms are believed to have been the biggest victims of the hack.
The incident forced mobile money service providers to suspend bank to mobile money or wallet transactions.
However, the companies indicated that “the system incident has had no impact on any balances on both bank and mobile money accounts”.
Although no details have been provided, the hackers are believed to operate from Eastern Europe with collaborations in the local systems.
The incident that is believed to involve a number of other companies has Pegasus Technologies as the link.
The technology company is an aggregator for inter mobile money service thus it links mobile money services between MTN and Airtel.
Pegasus also provides financial services for Stanbic Bank’s mobile banking platform, FlexiPay.