Kampala, (UG):- Uganda’s Deputy Speaker of Parliament, Rt Hon Thomas Tayebwa has asked Government to regulate online moneylenders in order to curb the untold suffering many Ugandans are enduring at their hands.
Tayebwa made the appeal via his official account on X (formerly Twitter), where he narrated how he had been bombarded with calls from one of the online money lending agencies Mangu Cash, after unknown person submitted his contact as surety for the loan they acquired and was being asked to pay the failed debt clearance.
“Whoever is regulating these online lenders should crack the whip on them. I have just received a call from some tough-speaking lady claiming to be from Mangu Cash threatening to deduct their loan money if I don’t produce some random person who put my name as their next of kin when they were borrowing. I think a lot of criminality is going on,” the Deputy Speaker wrote on Thursday.
“I hope our telecoms do not allow their mobile money platforms to be used to carry out fraud orchestrated by such unscrupulous companies. Tom Magambo you need to interest yourself in this sector many Ugandans might be dying quietly,” he added, calling on the head of the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (CID), AIGP Tom Magambo to crack the whip on the vice.
A section of MPs expressed support with Tayebwa’s proposal to intensify regulation of online money lenders led by Muwadda Nkunyingi (Kyadondo East) who castigated Government for failing to regulate the vice saying many Ugandans have been fleeced electronically without any action being taken to end the vice and proposed to have a mechanism put in place for victims of this fraud to seek compensation from Government due to its negligence.
“It is the Government that is mandated to regulate the communication sector and it is them to answer, what has happened. Because whenever we put Government on task to account for this lacuna, and these inadequacies, it is Government and Parliament that is protective,” the Kyadondo East legislator wrote.
‘Otherwise, we have the Uganda Communications Commission, and we have the Ministry of ICT, there must be connivance between the security organs and some powers that be to connive with these fraudsters to defraud the public,” he added.
Muwadda suggested that “we must come up with mechanisms of dealing with compensation that whenever someone is defrauded and there are institutions that would be regulated by Government, then Government must pay.”
Another MP, Ignatius Wamakuyu (Elgon County) called for increased regulation of money lenders warning that if the players in this industry operate without strict regulations, they might crash Uganda’s economy.
“There have been many activities around the country regarding financial transactions but of recent, most of the unregulated money lenders tend to fleece their clients, at times, they take their personal identification cards, property different from the terms agreed upon,” said Wamakuyu.
“My appeal to Government is that much as UMRA is rationalized back to the Ministry, they should strengthen that Tier 4 Microfinance to regulate activities of money lenders to help the community otherwise, the economy can collapse in the hands of few people.”
Now in an update on Friday morning, Tayebwa reiterated the need to regulate the moneylending apps after receiving testimonies of people who have been undergoing torture and harassment without help
“…there seem to be very many companies of this nature without physical traceability, no records of paying taxes, no customer care centres to handle complaints, and they run online terror squads threatening to shame innocent victims. I have since received many testimonies of people who have been undergoing torture and harassment without help,” Tayebwa wrote.
He cited an example of one Egesa Ronald Leonard who first raised the red flag and was not taken seriously until it happened to him [the speaker]. After sharing deeply concerning information about these predators. Tayebwa said he was also told that they [moneylenders] use threats once you raise a public concern about them and even use courts to silence people.
“We are now going to take it on seriously. If the issue is about weak regulation, we are going to do whatever it takes to have it sorted. They have to either shape up or ship out,” the Deputy Speaker warned.
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