The Minister for Communication, Digital Technology and Innovations, Sam George, has disclosed that security agencies have arrested more than 300 people this year alone for their involvement in mobile money fraud as part of a sustained national effort to clean up Ghana’s digital and financial ecosystem.
Speaking in an interview that has been widely circulated on social media, the Minister said the arrests were carried out through coordinated operations led by the Cyber Security Authority in collaboration with the Police Criminal Investigations Department and other security agencies. He stressed that the crackdown is not limited to requests from foreign partners such as the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation but is driven by Ghana’s own commitment to protect its reputation and citizens.
“We’ve arrested this year alone, we’ve arrested over 300 people in collaboration with the Police CID who have been involved with Mobile Money fraud,” he said.
Mr George explained that Ghana often bears the reputational damage for cyber and mobile money crimes even when the perpetrators are foreign nationals operating within the country. He cited the recent arrest of a suspect initially believed to be Ghanaian but later identified as a Nigerian national after surveillance and investigations.
“One of the individuals who we picked up recently about three weeks ago is a Nigerian who defrauded an elderly or roman scam artist and it was flagged as a Ghanaian operation but when we took the information and did surveillance and identified the individual and arrested the person, it turned out it wasn’t a Ghanaian it was a Nigerian who was doing this in Ghana but what happens is Ghana gets flagged for it,” he said.
According to the Minister, the ongoing operations are deliberately targeted at criminal networks and not individuals engaged in legitimate digital work or content creation. He said cybercrime has directly affected Ghana’s ability to secure monetisation opportunities from global digital platforms and payment services.
“We’re not going after people who are doing legitimate work we’re going after people who are giving us a bad image,” he stated.
Mr George revealed that some of the operations have gone beyond mobile money fraud to uncover more complex criminal activities, including human trafficking. He disclosed that in one major operation, security agencies rescued hundreds of victims who had been brought into Ghana under false pretences and forced to engage in cybercrime.
“In one bust alone we saved 425 people who were being human trafficked here in Ghana and had been brought to Ghana by Chinese and Nigerian operators locked up in a house in Dodowa and being made to do human trafficking against their will,” he said.
He added that arrests linked to mobile money fraud have been carried out across different parts of the country, including coastal communities. According to him, a recent operation in the Volta Region led to the arrest of suspects involved in high-level impersonation scams.
“This year alone, Mobile Money fraud went after people as far as Anloga, we arrested 7 people and their leader responsible for impersonation of Ministers and MPs,” he said.
The Minister rejected suggestions that the government is only interested in high-profile cybercrime cases involving international agencies, insisting that many operations are conducted quietly but effectively.
“So it’s not just the FBI we’re working, we do our work very quietly but very efficiently,” he said.
He commended the Cyber Security Authority for its leadership role and expressed gratitude to partner institutions for their collaboration.
“Let me commend the team at the Cyber Security Authority for the work they’re doing and say a very big thank you to the Police CID Director General, to our friends and sisters, our colleagues at the NIB, at NACOB and at Signals Bureau for working closely with us to execute this operation,” Mr George added.
He said the intensified crackdown is essential to restoring confidence in Ghana’s digital space, protecting citizens from fraud and strengthening the country’s case in engagements with global technology and financial platforms.
