East Africa countries agree to Start Cross-Border Phone Tapping

Kenya, Rwanda, South Sudan and Uganda have agreed to start monitoring all cross-border phone calls.

The agreement was arrived upon by the respective leaders during the recent 13th Northern Corridor Summit in Kampala, and they directed their respective ministries in charge of information communication technology (ICT) to procure traffic monitoring systems for detection of fraudulent calls.

Procurement of the monitors is going fast-tracked in order to deal with such calls.

The four countries signed of a data sharing and access agreement and any of the partner states will be able to gain access to data in the possession of a sister state.

Central bank governors were also directed to quicken the harmonization of cross-border mobile financial services among the countries.