Africa-Press – Uganda. In a bid to combat the rising threat of financial fraud, players across Uganda’s financial ecosystem have launched the Anti-Fraud Consortium (AFC) a strategic alliance aimed at fostering collaboration, coordination, and consistency in fraud prevention and response.
Launched on Wednesday at Mestil Hotel, the AFC brings together regulators, financial institutions, payment service providers, law enforcement agencies, and industry associations.
The consortium seeks to anticipate, detect, prevent, and respond to financial fraud in a more unified and effective manner.
Hosted by the Uganda Bankers Association (UBA) in partnership with the Bank of Uganda and the Financial Intelligence Authority (FIA) among other stakeholders, the event signaled a turning point in the national fight against fraud.
Presiding over the official launch, the Director of Public Prosecutions, Lady Justice Jane Frances Abodo, issued a strong call to action for actors across the financial value chain to work together and make financial fraud “a painful business” for perpetrators.
Describing fraud as a “sophisticated criminal enterprise that knows no borders,” Abodo stressed that the digital era has made it easier for fraudsters to exploit institutional weaknesses—often operating “more coordinated than those trying to fight them.”
“We must not view trust as a virtue; it must be a guarantee we give to the people who depend on our systems,” she said, adding that restoring and protecting public confidence in financial systems is now a national imperative.
She hailed the AFC as a paradigm shift from isolated efforts to a collective and strategic approach, and underscored the need for timely information-sharing, enhanced capacity building, and stronger prosecutorial support.
“No single institution can combat fraud alone,” she said. “Banks may have the data, but lack investigative powers. Law enforcement can investigate, but often lacks timely access to information.”
Justice Abodo urged financial institutions to invest in training prosecutors and investigators: “For your own safety, train us even at your cost,” she said. “If you want 20 prosecutors, I’ll send them. If you want all of them, I will send all of them. Just give us the information.”
Dr. Tumubweinee Twinemanzi, Executive Director of National Payment Systems at the Bank of Uganda and Chairperson of the Financial Sector Anti-Fraud Consortium, echoed the urgency of collective action.
“We realized that the majority of the fraud taking place within the financial sector had a very unique aspect to it, the sense that the way the fraud was done in one institution is the same way it was being done in another one. So the question then became, why is it that no institutions are talking to each other?” he posed.
He added that fraud undermines public trust, and emphasized that unity among financial institutions is the only viable path to overcoming the threat.
Ronald Azirwe, Managing Director of Pegasus Technologies, pointed out that disunity provides fertile ground for fraudsters to operate.
“Fraudsters thrive in fragmentation,” he said, calling for a united front. “We are only as strong as our weakest link and can only succeed if we stand together. This launch represents a united front and the long-overdue acknowledgment of a shared challenge.”
The Anti-Fraud Consortium will focus on three core objectives: uniting UBA members, PSPs, regulators, and other stakeholders to fight fraud collectively; exposing how fraud schemes work to enable early detection; and reviewing and refining regulatory frameworks, including amending laws and increasing penalties for offenders.
According to the Uganda Police Force’s Annual Crime Report, the country lost shs 72.1 billion to cybercrime alone, underscoring the urgency for collaborative solutions.
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