The Head of the Fintech and Innovation Department at the Bank of Ghana, Elhanan Owureku Asare, says Ghana's digital economy is not facing a trust crisis, but cautioned that failure to address rising fraud could erode public confidence in digital financial services.

Speaking at the JoyNews-Hubtel dialogue on fraud's impact on Ghana's digital economy on Wednesday, July 22, Mr. Asare said the country must remain vigilant and take proactive measures to prevent fraud from undermining trust in the rapidly growing digital ecosystem.

"I don't think we have a trust crisis. I think we need to be aware that there can be a potential trust crisis. And I think the fact that we acknowledge that there can be a potential trust crisis gives us all the tools and ammunition and the drive to be able to arrest the situation," he said.

He explained that while fraud figures may appear alarming in isolation, they should be viewed in the context of the significant growth in digital transactions since the introduction of mobile money in Ghana.

"We've seen a major growth in digital transactions. And just like any industry or any pattern where the attention is, that's where the fraudsters also get into," he noted.

According to Mr. Asare, the proportion of fraudulent transactions remains relatively small compared to the overall volume of digital transactions, but stressed that this should not breed complacency.

"I think if you really quantified the level of fraud which can actually impact trust and juxtapose it with the volumes that we are dealing with, on a per capita basis it is relatively slim. But we should not ignore the signal on the wall. We should not ignore the signal," he said.

He called for greater investment in public education, data analytics and artificial intelligence to detect suspicious transactions before they occur.

"We need to be able to ensure that we are educating, we are getting to where we have smart and fast tools to be able to curb this," he said.

Drawing comparisons with the banking sector, Mr. Asare said financial institutions have long used data to identify unusual customer behaviour, such as sudden changes in spending patterns, prompting immediate interventions.

"The moment your pattern of transactions changes, there's a call. Your card will be blocked because data is being leveraged," he said.

He urged digital service providers to adopt similar technologies, arguing that the increasing availability of artificial intelligence and advanced data capabilities presents an opportunity to strengthen fraud prevention.

"Now that we have AI tools and we have the data capabilities coming through, I believe service providers need to leverage on that so that we are more proactive than reactive," he added.