The Bank of Ghana (BoG) and the Economic and Organised Crime Office (EOCO), have arrested about 425 individuals comprising of Ghanaians and three foreigners for allegedly operating unlicensed digital loan applications.

The arrests were made during a joint operation conducted by the Joint Cybersecurity Committee (JCC). This was disclosed in a statement issued BY COP Maame Yaa Tiwaa Addo-Danquah, the Executive Director of the Economic And Organised Crime Office.

“In an attempt to disrupt the activities of these targeted entities, the task force, on Monday, July 10, 2023, with support from the Ghana Police Service, conducted a swoop in three (3) different suburbs in the Greater Accra Region where a total of four hundred and twenty-two (422) Ghanaians and three (3) foreign nationals were arrested, in all, six hundred and fifty-four (654) mobile phones, twenty-two (22) laptop computers and about eight hundred (800) sim cards were retrieved as part of the exercise.

“Investigations have so far led to the identification of one hundred and fifty (150) unlicensed digital loan application platforms whose owners/adminstrators resort to the use of death threats and the non-consensual distribution of private messages, images and videos mainly accessed through authorized permissions granted by unsuspecting victims who patronize these digital platforms.”
Maame Yaa Tiwaa Addo-Danquah

The JCC, which comprises the Cyber Security Authority (CSA), the Bank of Ghana (BoG), and the Economic and Organised Crime Office (EOCO), carried out the operation after receiving 270 complaints of cyberbullying, harassment, death threats, and other related offenses over the past six months. The complaints were filed by victims who had interacted with these illicit lending platforms.

Items Retrieved

The operation Involved raiding the premises of four suspected illegal digital lending companies in the Greater Accra Region.

The Economic and Organised Crime Office is a statutory body mandated by the Economic and Organised Crime Act, 2010 (Act 804) to monitor and investigate economic and organised crimes and on the authority of the Attorney-General, prosecute these offences to recover the proceeds of the crime.

In keeping with its statutory mandate, EOCO is enjoined to collaborate with relevant state agencies to safeguard the integrity of the financial markets in Ghana. In view of the above, a joint technical taskforce comprising EOCO, the Bank of Ghana (BOG) and the Cyber Security Authority (CSA) was constituted to clamp down the activities of unlicensed digital loan application platforms.

The Economic and Organised Crime Office meanwhile, iterated its commitment to the enforcement of relevant laws on the operations of the financial markets in Ghana and hereby cautions the general public to desist from having any form of engagements with unlicensed financial entities who ply their trade online.