By Bala Ali, ISD, Accra
Today’s modern world is witnessing the development of artificial intelligence, any economy that is not digitized is most likely to suffer poor or slow growth. It is a smart move, that government’s digitalization agenda deserves commendation and praise. No wonder, Vice President, Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia has been touting it as the country’s engine of economic growth.
If well executed, the digitalization of the economy would go a long way to salvage the country from the factors that hinder its progress.
It is actually the best weapon against corruption, which has been identified as one of the militating factors against the development of the nation.
Above all, it will promote financial inclusion and make life easy for the citizens. Among other things, revenue generation will commensurably improve along with services delivery.
This stems from the fact that activities of revenue generation institutions can be monitored to make siphoning of funds by corrupt officers practically difficult. Thus, the culture of Public Officers enriching themselves at the expense of the nation would be checked with the full implementation of the digitalization agenda.
The National Sports Authority (NSA) experienced this when it raised the record 1.4 million cedis from the Ghana Black Stars match against their Nigerian counterparts, the Supper Eagles, in the 2022 Qatar World Cup qualifier in Kumasi last year. Commenting on how the tickets for that match was sold, the Vice President recounted how he could monitor the sale of tickets for the match as he could track how many tickets had been sold at a point in time and how much monies were raised. This is how digitalization would promote checks and balances and transparency in revenue generation and public service delivery.
Above all, digitalization will also make it possible for the average Ghanaian citizen to get its fair share of the services being rendered by such public institutions like the Ghana Water Company Limited and Electricity Company of Ghana. The culture of frustrating citizens who apply for the services of these companies would be brought to an end, since those who perpetrate such acts would be exposed by the digitalized system. In sum, digitalization of the economy will greatly improve social services in both the public and private sectors, with an inherent transparency. Unfortunately, however, it is sad to observe that a gang of individuals in the financial sector have resorted to using the digitalization platform to blackmail and dupe unsuspecting citizens,a conduct which is a serious threat to the successful implementation of this important government initiative. A gang of IT and financial experts in the cyber world have surfaced as loan creditors and are offering the poor citizens with killer interest loans that are against the modus operandi of the regulatory body, the Bank of Ghana.
Aside from operating outside the spelt-out rules and regulations of the Bank of Ghana, they are also engaged in alleged criminality of blackmailing and exploiting their victims, as well as infringing on the right of privacy of innocent citizens, who have no dealings with them. This stems from the fact that the Apps’ through which they give out their killer loans are designed to give them access to the contact list and private text messages of their clients. This makes it possible for them to get the contact numbers of people who would have been sceptical in sharing them with such organisations and individuals. The worst part of it is their modus operandi. They deceive and lure their victims with false advertisements on social media platforms to fall for their loans, after which they employ the weapon of blackmail to exploit them. Taking advantage of desperate citizens who would have been in need of money to attend to their genuine and pressing needs, they show them adverts of loan opportunities, with longer periods of payment schedule only for their victims to realise, that they have a week or two to pay back the loans with over 70 percent interest rate. Having fallen into their hands, they then threaten to spread damning news about their victim’s contact list and advise them to contact their relatives to pay them back, lest they destroy their reputation and reduce their credit ratings.
The question we should be asking is if the Bank of Ghana is aware of the existence of these criminal entities but have allowed them to continue destroying the image of the country’s financial sector and exploiting already financially burdened citizens. Over the years,all that the Central Bank has done as a regulatory body was to issue lame press statements to citizens warning them from dealing with these cyber fraudsters. After issuing the statement to discourage the public from dealing with these cyber financial fraudsters, the same entities resurfaces with different names, thereby making void the statement of the Bank of Ghana.
To prevent these criminal syndicates from threatening the successful implementation of the government’s digitalization agenda, the Economic and Organised Crime Office (EOCO) and the Cyber Crime Unit of the Ghana Police Service must team up with the Bank of Ghana to arrest and prosecute the faces behind this criminality.
Let us wake up as a country to bring the activities of these people to a total and successful halt and end, else, we will one day be in serious financial crisis as a nation, for there is an adage that when your neighbour’s beard is on fire, you need to get water close to yourself.
A word to the wise is enough.
