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AML Policy

1. Introduction and Background

  1. This Policy sets out the obligations of DusuPay, a company registered in Uganda, whose registered office is at Kampala hereinafter referred to as “DusuPay” regarding taking measures to prevent criminals or their associates from holding or being the beneficial owner of a significant or controlling interest or holding a management function in a DusuPay account or its contents. The Policy is also meant to ensure that DusuPay or any service offered by it is not used by a person to commit or facilitate the crime of money laundering and financing of terrorist activities.

  2. Our business operations are guided by the Anti-Money Laundering Act, 2013 and the Regulations made thereunder. Our management and employees are fully conversant with all Anti-Money Laundering guidelines and are aware of their responsibilities in the monitoring, reporting and disclosure of any actions that raise suspicion or give cause for concern.

  3. DusuPay has thus created this policy to regulate transactions with its customers who own DusuPay private as well as Business accounts and to ensure funds and their source are fully traced and accounted for in light of the requirements set out by Bank of Uganda and the Financial Intelligence Authority (FIA).

  4. This policy is also in compliance with obligations as set out under international Anti-Money Laundering legislation and it encompasses the need to have adequate controls and systems in place to avoid or limit the risks of DusuPay being used to facilitate financial crime, economic or otherwise.

2. Prohibition of Money Laundering

  1. The Anti- money laundering Act, 2013 defines “money laundering” as the process of turning illegitimately obtained property into seemingly legitimate property and it includes concealing or disguising the nature, source, location, disposition or movement of the proceeds of crime and any activity which constitutes a crime under the Act;

  2. It is prohibited for any person to through DusuPay intentionally convert, transfer, transport or transmit property, knowing or suspecting that such property to be the proceeds of crime, for the purpose of concealing or disguising the illicit origin of the property or making use of their DusuPay account to assist any person who is involved in the commission of the crime generating the proceeds to evade the legal consequences of his or her actions.

  3. It is prohibited to use one’s DusuPay account to conceal, disguise, or impede the establishment of the true nature, source, location, or ownership with respect to property knowing that such property are the proceeds of crime. This prohibition also applies to assisting another to benefit from known proceeds of crime or to facilitate a conspiracy, participation, association, attempting, aiding or betting the commission of a crime.

  4. It should be noted that money laundering is a crime distinct from and in addition to other crimes under the laws of Uganda, including the crime generating the proceeds subject to the money laundering and you may be charged without having been convicted of the crime of generating the proceeds of money laundering.

3. Know Your Customer (KYC)

3. Know Your Customer (KYC)

  1. Knowing your customer (KYC) entails the process of identification and verification of the identity of clients. This process involves the consistent review, verification and recording of customer identification and transaction information, as well as the handling of inaccurate, incomplete or suspicious information.

  2. In order to avert crimes related to money laundering and counter terrorism financing, DusuPay has developed the following keystone procedures to ensure it is compliant with the regulations set forth in the Anti-Money Laundering Regulations, 2015;

4. Customer Identification Requirements

  1. DusuPay employees are required to review customer identification and ensure they are:
     

    1. Currently valid

    2. Government issued

    3. Contain a photograph

    4. Contain the customer’s name.
       

  2. DusuPay employees must determine that the form of identification is acceptable by the Competent Authority. As such, the only acceptable identification documents shall be a valid Passport and a National I.D
     

  3. In the case of Corporate Bodies, employees are required to review the copies of the relevant documents, that is:

 

  1. Certificate of incorporation or business registration certificate;

  2. Memorandum and articles of association;

  3. Company headed paper;

  4. Tax Identification Number (TIN); in case of need

  5. Trading License in case of need

  6. DusuPay employees are required to review the identification of the individual representing the Corporate Body and the evidence that he/she has the necessary authority to do so and verify this with the company’s board resolution.

  7. They are further required to review identification of the principal or substantial shareholders, the directors (including the managing director) and all authorized signatories in line with the requirements for individual customer as provided hereinabove.

  8. Each DusuPay employee is required to look at and handle the customer’s ID to verify their identity and its authenticity. If an ID is not provided, does not match the customer or is fake; the employee must refuse the transaction.

3. Know Your Customer (KYC)

  1. DusuPay has taken measures to identify customers who maintain accounts with DusuPay to ensure that they maintain such accounts in the true name of the account holder, and do not open or keep anonymous accounts or accounts which are in fictitious or incorrect names.
     

  2. DusuPay shall not initiate a business relationship or carry out an occasional transaction, including the opening of a new account or entering into a fiduciary transaction, performing a cash transaction over a capped amount, without undertaking customer due diligence measures, including recording and verifying by reliable means the identity of the client, including their true name as provided by the authorised identification document. Subject to our Privacy Policy, the information you give to us may enable us access your address including postal and residential, employment, and occupation and this may also apply to your representative or whoever has been appointed to act on your behalf.
     

  3. DusuPay also undertakes further customer due diligence measures to verify the DusuPay customer’s identity using reliable, independent source documents, data or information, such as passports, birth certificates, driver’s licenses, identity cards, voter’s card, utility bills, bank statements, partnership contracts and incorporation documents or other identification documents prescribed by regulations made under the law.
     

  4. Alongside this, we shall verify the beneficial owner of the account and take reasonable measures to understand the ownership, control and structure of the customer obtaining information. This shall include conducting on going due diligence on the business relationship and where necessary the source, purpose and destination of the funds.
     

  5. DusuPay shall verify the identity of the customer and beneficial owner before or during the course of opening a DusuPay account or conducting a transaction through DusuPay and this shall apply to each of our customers although the extent may be dependent on the risk sensitiveness of each customer so that for higher risk classified customers, we shall perform an enhanced due diligence.
     

  6. In that regard, DusuPay shall undertake enhanced customer due diligence measures to determine the true identity of the client if—

    1. there are any doubts that a client is acting on his or her own behalf, particularly in the case of a juridical person who is not conducting any commercial, financial, or industrial operations in Uganda where it has its headquarters or domicile;

    2. the client is a high risk Politically Exposed Person (PEP);

    3. there are any doubts about the veracity or adequacy of obtained customer identification data;

    4. there is a suspicion of money laundering or terrorist financing;

    5. in addition to normal due diligence measures, in relation to politically exposed persons DusuPay shall have appropriate risk management systems to determine whether a customer is a politically exposed person;

    6. establish appropriate guidelines to monitor business relations with such customers;

    7. take reasonable measures to establish the source of wealth or funds;

    8. conduct on-going monitoring of the business relations; and;

    9. obtain the approval of senior management before establishing a business relationship with the customer;

  7. at the point of withdrawing or depositing, the source of funds shall be questioned through a reference system;

  8. no bank transfers are allowed in our system, only peer to peer transfers;

  9. the Anti-Money Laundering Officer shall monitor accounts which have been idle for a long time and have them blocked;

  10. DusuPay operate an open API linking the system to Anti-Money Laundering authorities’ databases like the Financial Intelligence Authority.

6. Data Protection and Retention

  1. DusuPay as a Data Controller shall comply with its obligations under the Data Protection and Privacy Act, 2019 Laws of Uganda.

  2. DusuPay as a Data Controller shall archive or destroy data after 10 years upon request by the Data Subjects.

  3. DusuPay shall store Customer Data on the cloud through Amazon Web Services (AWS).

7. Politically Exposed Persons

  1. “Politically Exposed Persons”(PEP’s) means individuals who are or have been entrusted with prominent functions in a country, for instance, Heads of State or of government, senior politicians, senior government, judicial or military officials, senior executives of state owned corporations, and important party officials as well as family members or close associates of such individuals;
     

  2. These at times, pose a significant risk in the financial sector as they may be agents or beneficiaries of economic crime. DusuPay’s Anti-Money Laundering Officer shall therefore implement appropriate risk management systems to determine whether a person or customer is a politically exposed person.
     

  3. DusuPay considers Ugandans from the political level of L.C.5 and above as PEP’s.
     

  4. DusuPay’s Anti-money Laundering Officer shall take the following measures where a person or customer is a Politically Exposed Person—
     

    1. Obtain written approval from senior management to transact or establish a business relationship with that person;

    2. Take adequate measures to establish the source of wealth and the source of funds involved in the proposed business relationship or transaction;

    3. Obtain information on the immediate family members or close associates of the person who may have transaction authority over the account;

    4. Determine the purpose of the transaction or account and the expected volume and nature of account activity;

    5. Review public sources of information on the politically exposed person; and

    6. Conduct enhanced on-going monitoring of the business relationship, once the account has been established.

    7. DusuPay shall take such measures as are reasonably necessary toensure that neither it nor any service offered by it is used by a person to commit or facilitate the crime of money laundering and financing of terrorist activities.

    8. DusuPay shall establish and maintain for at least ten years the information obtained about the true identity of the person on whose behalf a business relationship is initiated or a transaction is conducted and establish and maintain, during the period in which business relations are in effect, and for at least ten years after their conclusion, in readily recoverable form, the records of the information and documentation required this policy.

    9. DusuPay shall carry out annual reviews on these PEP’s.

8. Risk Clarification

  1. The Risk classification of DusuPay Users will be divided into:
     

    1. Low Risk; these are by and large nationals of a country who are not PEP’s or on any sanction list of any country or from non-restricted countries.

    2. High Risk; these are foreigners from restricted countries or people that trade with restricted countries or people that deal in high risk businesses or PEP’s.
       

  2. The determination of whether or not one is a Low or High Risk will be determined at on-boarding from the additional information gathered from that individual or from the nature of transactions carried out by DusuPay User.

9. Customer Refresher

DusuPay shall from time to time update its data about its customers by sending them messages to update their information or else have them lose their accounts.

10. Statement of our Policy

  1. The company supports the fight against money laundering and terrorism by adopting this AML Compliance Policy to prevent the DusuPay’s financial services from being used to promote such criminal activity.

  2. Cooperate with all the authorities, to the extent that is permitted by applicable Laws, so as to help them in their efforts to prevent or fight money laundering, and the financing of terrorism proliferation.

  3. DusuPay will fully comply with both the intent and letter of all laws and Regulations relating to AML, the prevention of terrorist financing and economic sanctions.

  4. DusuPay will train its employees to comply with these laws and Regulations.

  5. Maintain all customer/transactions related records for at least 10 years or for longer period if the Law in the country requires so.

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