Bankers awaken on security measures

With the help of Rwanda National Police, bankers in Rwanda have awakened on taking measures to fight financial crimes, money laundering and understanding cybercrimes .

The course organized and conducted by Rwanda National Police under the theme “Policing together transnational organized crime,” aims at sharing skills and knowledge to deal with bank robberies.

The Deputy Inspector General of Police, Dan Munyuza, says that though Rwanda has low rates of such crimes, the training is needed so that Rwanda takes serious measures against such criminal activities which are transnational in nature.

Others training sessions will also include community policing as a tool in security, ethics and professionalism, security in banks, corruption and its effects and customer care.

Cyber crime rates in Rwanda are not as alarming as they are in the rest of the world due to the average internet penetration but it is imperative that the fight against cyber crimes starts now because of its impacts which are on the rise.

 As Rwanda continues to make giant strides in the use of ICT, cyber attacks and financial fraud continue to occur frequently and result in serious financial consequences for businesses and government institutions.

According to a survey conducted by Deloitte last year, banks in Kenya, Rwanda, Uganda, Tanzania and Zambia lose $245 million in cyber fraud and George Kiseka, a representative of International Criminal Police Organisation (Interpol) regional office says that cyber crime is the most dangerous threat and still a big challenge in the region.

In Rwanda, the penal code in its article 312, any person who, fraudulently and in any way, accesses and remains in another person’s automated data processing system or similar systems with intent to find out electronically stored or transmitted data, regardless of the location, is liable to a term of imprisonment of one (1) year to three (3) years and a fine of one million (1,000,000) to three million (3,000,000) Rwandan francs.

Bankers awaken on security measures