Incidents of fraud in Kenya have prompted the country’s bankers to implement chip and pin technology use on debit and credit cards by September 30.
Magnetic strip technology is widely in use on ATMs across Kenya. However, this technology has made these cards and ATMs easy targets for card skimmers and thieves.
Chip and PIN cards, though, are safer as they have built-in microchips that are encrypted: making them more difficult to copy or counterfeit.
Also, chip and PIN cards require their owners to enter a four-digit personal identification number (PIN) instead of a writing out a signature when conducting a transaction.
Statistics from auditing firm Deloitte say that approximately KES 4.05 billion (US $48.3 million) was fraudulently transferred from customer accounts in East African banks in the 18 months up to June 2011.
As a result, the Kenya Bankers Association together with the Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) late last week set out a plan to ensure that all commercial banks migrate to the Europay, MasterCard and Visa (EMV) chip and PIN technology.
While speaking at the unveiling of the chip and PIN initiative in Nairobi, KBA chief executive Habil Olaka said, “A few banks have already complied but we are not sure whether this is full compliance or partial. All we expect is that by the end of September all will have complied.”
Moves to migrate Kenyans to chip and PIN technology have been underway already.
Late last year, stakeholders in the Kenya including MasterCard, regional card processor Paynet and global security printer De La Rue launched a campaign in Nairobi called ‘The great migration to EMV”.
The campaign has aimed at encouraging Kenyan banks to abandon magnetic stripe systems used for chip and pin cards.
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