05 September 2019

Airtel Kenya lost Sh670m (US$6.7m) through its mobile money transfer platform last year, in what has been described as “one of the biggest inside job corporate thefts in recent history”.

The huge losses were revealed in a prospectus of parent firm Airtel Africa, which showed that only Sh86m (US$860,000) of the amount lost was recovered through insurance.

 “In 2018, incidents of cash control frauds were identified in the Airtel Money operations in Kenya, which involved circumvention of its controls by Airtel Money employees and resulted in loss of $6.7 million (Sh670 million),” Airtel Africa said.

The firm added that while it has introduced stringent controls to check on fraud, risks posed by employees cannot be completely eliminated.

Some of the measures in place include daily reconciliations, separation of duties and technical restrictions on transfers to non-Airtel bank accounts. 

The revelation came barely a fortnight after two Safaricom staff members were charged in court with attempted fraud of over Sh300m.