M-Pesa denies risks of money laundering

Maputo, 14 May (AIM) – The Mozambican mobile wallet service M-Pesa, which is owned by the telecommunications company Vodacom, believes that the financial transactions that it offers do not create risks of money laundering and terrorist financing in the northern Mozambican province of Cabo Delgado.

According to Salimo Abdula, the new Chairperson of the Board of Directors of M-Pesa, speaking in Maputo on Monday, “our transactions today are extremely secure. We can identify at any moment what the origins of the funds are and we carry out these analyses.”

According to Abdula, the measures imposed by the government to prevent money laundering include the availability of an articulate team and investment in modern systems and models to detect possible sources of money laundering and terrorist financing.

Abdula said that M-Pesa opts for security compliance, taking into account the established rules.

“But we are not going to give up our own measures in this security compliance. One of the illustrative points is the limits on transactions through M-Pesa, which currently stand at 25,000 meticais (around 390 US dollars), and that the company’s shareholders will not accept any extension before ensuring that all security protocols have been observed”, Abdula said.

(AIM)

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