The Chief Risk and Compliance Officer at MobileMoney Fintech Limited, Godwin Kwami Tamakloe, has cautioned that while Ghana has not yet reached a digital trust crisis, there are growing signs that fear of fraud is beginning to influence consumer behaviour.

Speaking at the JoyNews-Hubtel dialogue on fraud's impact on Ghana's digital economy, Mr. Tamakloe said some people are increasingly reluctant to use digital financial services because they fear becoming victims of fraud.

"There are signals, you know, to the fact that people would say, 'I don't want to do this because I'm afraid I might be defrauded.' So, there are signals as to because of that, emotionally or mentally, people want to rather protect their money themselves by keeping it in their wallet than putting it digitally to use," he said on Wednesday, July 22.

He noted, however, that determining the point at which a trust crisis begins is difficult, warning that waiting until digital transactions begin to decline before taking action would be too late.

"But again, you come to ask us at what point do we say we are in crisis? That is very difficult because you would then have seen the trajectory turning downwards before you come to your senses to say, 'It seems that things are hitting us hard,'" he said.

Mr. Tamakloe stressed that financial institutions generally have zero tolerance for fraud, meaning that even isolated incidents should be treated with utmost seriousness.

"So, it is serious for me. Even if it is one case... your risk appetite for fraud normally within our financial sector is zero. So, to have even one is an issue," he stated.

Despite the warning signs, he maintained that Ghana has not yet reached a point where public confidence in digital financial services has been significantly undermined.

"So, there are some signals around that. But are we there, as in do we have a trust issue at this point in time? I would say no," he added.

Mr. Tamakloe also called for a more coordinated approach to tackling digital fraud, arguing that banks, payment service providers (PSPs) and other financial institutions should view themselves as part of a single digital ecosystem.

He observed that nearly all commercial banks and specialised deposit-taking institutions are accelerating their digital transformation, with many relying on payment service providers to deliver digital services.

"Today, you see that almost all the 23 commercial banks and the SDIs are moving strategically towards digitisation. Most of the platforms they are use in providing services are the PSPs. So, fraud happens here for banking services, it is happening on PSPs."

He said addressing digital fraud effectively would require collaboration across the entire financial sector rather than treating fraud incidents as isolated challenges.

"It is good for us to rather see it from the point of view of us being in one ecosystem. And that is the need for us to look at it from that perspective and deal with it," he said.