Vice President Dr Mahamudu Bawumia is expected to launch the cybersecurity guideline for commercial banks as part of the Cyber Security Month celebration beginning next week.

The guideline seeks to promote the voluntary information sharing on customer database and ensure that incidence of cyber-attacks within the financial sector is reduced.

In 2017, 1,418 financial fraud cases were reported to the bank of Ghana representing 42 per cent compared to 1001 cases which presented 41.66 per cent in 2016.

Attempted fraud same year, amounted to Gh₵190.38 million out of which Gh₵160.30 million were recovered.

According to the National Cyber Security centre, Ghana’s cyber arena has recorded significant developments within the last 18 months with the introduction of paperless ports processes, digital property addressing system, mobile money interoperability systems and the ongoing national identification system (Ghana Card), amongst others.

These interventions call for an increased awareness of potential crime in the cyberspace.

National Cyber Security Advisor, Albert Antwi-Boasiaku told JoyBusiness the guidelines to be launched by the Vice President will not be to prescribe punitive measures for the financial operators but to assist in preventing cyber fraud.

“We need to look at different models of achieving enforcement in the fight against cybersecurity ecosystem; punitive in the directive may be the last result rather a voluntary and promoting approach is what the Bank of Ghana’s guideline seeks,” he said.

The guideline will be launched as part of the cybersecurity awareness month celebration; an annual event celebrated across the globe.

In Ghana, the month of October has been earmarked for awareness creation expected to be launched October 1 under the theme, "A safer digital Ghana".

The nationwide event is organised by the Ministry of Communication and the National Cyber Security Centre.

The National Cyber Security Advisor noted, “Ghana as a country needs to increase awareness of the negative effect and ways of curbing cybercrime.”
Activities for the month-long event will include workshops and conferences on child online protection, Cyber Hygiene and Awareness, Cyber Security & the Youth, Cyber Security Solutions, Capacity Building and among others.

National Cyber Security Awareness event was first organized by the Ministry of Communications in November 2016.