The Bank of Ghana has offered financial literacy training to personnel of the Ghana Immigration Service in the Ashanti region.

The training is aimed at empowering the security personnel with knowledge in managing their finances and to make the right financial decisions.

The workshop is part of the Bank of Ghana’s annual activities to educate the public on financial management.

The training covered critical areas including, identification of licensed financial institutions, official means to lodge complaints, loan applications, and money laundering.

According to statistics by the central bank, the majority of complaints received are from security personnel.

Godfred Cudjoe of the Financial Stability Department of the Bank says most of the security personnel are victims of ponzi schemes.

“The bank noticed that from our complaint statistics, a number of complainants came from the security agencies. Especially when it comes to ponzi schemes within country, the security agencies are the most hit,” he said. 

The Bank of Ghana cautioned the public against disposing of their mobile SIM cards after borrowing money from the telecommunication networks.

According to Godfred Cudjoe, this will affect the ability to access a loan from the banks.

“The information is kept by the credit bureau. So, if you need a loan another time from a bank, they will check and know that you once took MoMo loan and didn’t pay. This will affect your ability of getting a loan when you are in dire need of funds,” he said. 

Chief Accountant at the Ashanti regional command of the Ghana Immigration Service, Joshua Mensah Ayettey, says the training would help in reducing the growing statistics of staff losing money to Ponzi schemes.

“This would help us a lot. We are privileged for the knowledge and awareness given us. Knowledge stimulates action. So, what has been learnt here will be shared,” he said. 

The training is expected to be replicated across all other security agencies.