Second Deputy Governor of the Bank of Ghana (BoG), Matilda Asante-Asiedu, says fraud in Ghana’s digital financial space increased by 98% between 2022 and 2025, as criminals increasingly target electronic payment channels.
She said the trend reflects a changing financial crime landscape as more customers move their transactions onto digital platforms.
“It is not just a shift in the statistics or the data, but it’s also a shift in the financial crime landscape itself,” she said.
Madam Asante-Asiedu disclosed this 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.
She said total reported fraud cases across banks, specialised deposit-taking institutions and payment service providers rose from 16,733 in 2024 to 24,778 in 2025, a 48% increase.
The BoG’s 2025 Fraud Report says the increase was driven mainly by the payment service provider sector, where cases rose by 98% between 2022 and 2025.
“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.
Madam Asante-Asiedu stressed that the threat extends beyond individual fintechs or payment service providers because digital financial institutions are interconnected with banks.
“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.
She therefore called for stronger intelligence sharing, investigations, prosecutions and public awareness among regulators, financial institutions and law enforcement agencies.
“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.
The BoG’s latest figures show that while fraud cases increased sharply in the digital payments space, reported cases involving banks and specialised deposit-taking institutions declined, highlighting the shift of financial crime towards digital channels.
