Launch of the Financial Sector Anti-Fraud Consortium (AFC)
September 19, 2025
Uganda’s financial sector recently took a major step in the fight against rising financial fraud by launching the Financial Sector Anti-Fraud Consortium (AFC). The new alliance brings together a wide network of stakeholders, including regulators, supervised financial institutions and their agents, payment service providers, law enforcement, legislators and other industry actors to foster stronger collaboration and share vital information to counter fraud in Uganda.
What the Consortium Seeks to Achieve
- Unified Response: The AFC aims to break down siloed operations. By enabling institutions to share intelligence and coordinate their efforts, fraud that spans multiple organizations can be detected quicker.
- Early Detection and Prevention: Sharing knowledge about fraud schemes, trends, and weak points across the sector will help stakeholders anticipate vulnerabilities and implement earlier interventions.
- Regulatory and Legal Strengthening: One of the goals is to review and refine regulatory frameworks, increase penalties for offenders, and ensure enforcement is consistent.
- Capacity Building & Public Awareness: Training law enforcement, financial institutions, and prosecutors; soliciting public awareness initiatives; and improving reporting channels are central to the AFC’s strategy.
Voices & Statements
Mr. Ronald Azairwe, Managing Director of Pegasus Technologies Limited (representing the PSPA), emphasized the need for unity:
“Fraudsters thrive in fragmentation. We are only as strong as our weakest link, and we only stand a chance if we stand together.”
Dr. Tumubweine Twinemanzi, Executive Director of National Payments Systems at the Bank of Uganda, underlined the patterns of fraud crossing institutions and the urgency of information sharing.
Justice Jane Frances Abodo, Director of Public Prosecutions, called for fraud to be made “a painful business” for perpetrators, emphasizing stronger prosecutorial power and accountability.
Significance and Call to Action
The launch of the AFC is being seen as a paradigm shift; it is no longer enough for institutions to attempt counter-fraud measures on their own. Fraud in Uganda has increasingly taken sophisticated, cross-institutional forms, making collaboration not just helpful, but essential. The consortium represents Uganda’s most comprehensive effort yet to tackle financial fraud at scale.