Southern Africa Telecoms Assoc Meets to Discuss Fraud Management

APA-Maseru (Lesotho) Members of the Southern Africa Telecommunications Association (SATA) attending a fraud management workshop are on Thursday spending their second day of a three-day meeting in the Lesotho capital Maseru.

Lesotho Communications, Science and Technology Minister Mothejoa Metsing said fraud is the largest area of revenue leakage for telecommunications operators and Lesotho was not spared from the problem.

"The impact of fraud to operators worldwide was estimated at US$12 billion in 1999 and in 2005 it had risen to US$54.6 billion," he observed.

He added that operators in Africa and the Middle East are experiencing losses of more than 20 per cent of revenue, while Europe and North America ranged between eight and 13 per cent.

He therefore urged SATA members to find common solutions that would address challenges which result from fraud, and find ways on how to control the crime in the Southern African countries.

SATA Executive Secretary Jacob Munodawafa said as technology continues to evolve, each new development has provided opportunities for criminality, which has been utilised to obtain property and financial advantage through deception and crime committed through misuse of telecommunications equipment.

"The challenge facing SATA is to develop revenue protection strategies to combat all areas of fraud, by covering the development of comprehensive fraud mitigation efforts, including strategies around organisation systems applications in different areas of business in an attempt to step ahead of fraudsters," he added.

SATA handles issues such as technical standards, tariffs, sub-regional information infrastructure (SRII), cross-border investment (satellite technology) and public/private partnerships.

Posted to the site on 8th November 2007