The Microfinance Institutions Network is warning the general public against the proliferation of online advertisements of some financial institutions that has no physical presence.

According to the Network, these institutions pose a threat to many unsuspecting customers online and must be avoided.

Executive Director of the Ghana Microfinance Institutions Network, Yaw Gyamfi,B spoke to Joy Business on the menace at a workshop on financial literacy in the Central Region.

He, however, indicated that the Network is in close collaboration with the Bank of Ghana to weed out such activities before it becomes a growing scheme.

“We are working with our monitoring teams across the country and with the Bank of Ghana to ensure that newly established firms have all the requisite capacity to operate but our major challenge now is some faceless microfinance and financial institutions advertising online especially on Facebook. You may try clicking on them but cannot find who is behind it or even their physical locations".

“The sector has come far and we don’t want people to fall prey to some of these schemes.  So I can assure you that we’re working to sanitise the system, but we need customers to be vigilant as well”, he explained.

The three days’ workshop was organised by the Financial Sector Division of the Ministry of Finance to improve financial literacy in the country, beginning with the media.

Other officers from the National Pensions and Regulatory Authority, the  Securities and Exchange Commission, the Ministry of Finance and the National Insurance Commission also made presentations on the role each of them is playing in the financial inclusion drive.

The primary goal of the campaigns is to equip consumers of financial services with the capacity to act in their own best financial interests, given their unique socioeconomic and environmental conditions. It seeks to empower consumers with the requisite knowledge (literacy), attitudes, skills and behavior to manage their resources, and to assist them understand, select and use financial services that fit their needs.