The Bank of Ghana has pledged to continues to bolster engagements with financial institutions, particularly cited for high incidences of fraud, and strongly demand action plans to tackle and address such incidences of fraud.

It would also direct its regulated institutions to report fraud incidences to the investigative authorities for the appropriate course of action to be taken.

The Central Bank in 2023 continued its engagement with relevant stakeholders including the National Cyber Security Authority, the National Communication Authority, the National Security Secretariat, the Economic and Organized Crime Office and the Ghana Police Service to enhance collaboration in the fight against fraud, especially cyber related fraud.

The regulator of the financial sector as part its engagements, hosted the Committee for Cooperation between Law Enforcement Agencies and the Banking Community (COCLAB) workshop in April 2024 to effectively map out strategies to fight fraud in the digital financial environment.

Similar stakeholder engagements have been planned for the year with the aim of strengthening collaboration in the fight against fraud in the financial system.

Data collated from Banks, Specialized Deposit Taking institutions, and Point of Sale Platforms indicated that the count of fraud cases increased to 15,865 in 2023 from 15,164 in 2022, according to Banks, SDIs & PSPs 2023 Fraud Report.

In view of the above findings and trends, the Bank of Ghana said it has directed banks and SDIs to update their technologies and tools with enhanced built-in security features to curb fraud.

They are equally mandated to prioritise employee training and continued due diligence and strengthening of internal controls.

Also, banks should strengthen the security protocols for account access and transactions, including multi-factor authentication as well as regular update of mobile banking applications with biometric authentication and fix bug issues.