The Bank of Ghana (BoG) has called for stronger collaboration among financial institutions, regulators and law enforcement agencies as fraudsters increasingly exploit Ghana’s expanding digital payment ecosystem.
The Second Deputy Governor of the BoG, Mrs Matilda Asante-Asiedu, said the rapid growth of electronic financial services had been accompanied by a significant shift in the country’s financial crime landscape.
She disclosed that fraud incidents in Ghana’s digital financial space increased by 98 per cent between 2022 and 2025, underscoring the need for financial crime prevention strategies to evolve alongside technological advances.
Overall fraud incidents across the financial ecosystem also rose from 16,733 in 2024 to 24,778 in 2025, representing a 48 per cent increase, even as incidents within the traditional banking sector declined.
“It is not just a shift in the statistics or the data, but it’s also a shift in the financial crime landscape itself,” Mrs Asante-Asiedu said.
She made the remarks at the opening of a technical committee workshop of the Committee for Cooperation Between Law Enforcement Agencies and the Banking Community (COCLAB) at the Royal Senchi in the Eastern Region.
Mrs Asante-Asiedu said the figures demonstrated that criminal networks were adapting their activities to the growing popularity of digital transactions.
“Between 2022 and 2025, fraud incidents in the digital space increased by 98%, confirming again that criminal activity is also following the growth in digital transactions,” she said.
She cautioned that the threat could not be treated as a problem affecting only fintech companies or payment service providers because digital financial institutions were interconnected with banks and other components of the financial system.
“It’s not just a challenge for a PSP. Because think about it, a PSP’s account sits with a bank. And so if that fraud incident happens, it transcends one institution and it affects the entire financial ecosystem,” she said.
The Second Deputy Governor stressed the need for proactive measures as fraudsters became more sophisticated and consumers increasingly relied on digital platforms for everyday financial transactions.
She therefore urged members of COCLAB to intensify intelligence sharing, investigations, prosecutions and public education to stay ahead of emerging financial crimes.
According to her, the effectiveness of the country’s anti-fraud efforts should not be measured merely by the number of investigations conducted or arrests made, but by whether such interventions ultimately reduce financial crime and strengthen the protection of customers.
Mrs Asante-Asiedu further urged law enforcement and financial sector stakeholders to create an environment in which criminals would be deterred from exploiting digital financial systems.
“We should be so efficient that when the fraudster begins to think through their next move, they’ll also think, gosh, what if these people arrest me?” she said.
