MTN Ghana Mobile Money Limited (MML) has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Economic and Organised Crime Office (EOCO) to fight organized crime as part of efforts to stay ahead of financial and organised crime that has recently taken over the industry.

Commenting on the partnership, Commissioner of Police Maame Yaa Tiwaa Addo-Danquah, who is the Executive Director of the EOCO, noted that the collaboration is very important because the Office of EOCO has just launched its five-year strategic plan to enable them stay ahead of the criminals.

According to Maame Yaa Tiwaa Addo-Danquah, the collaboration would enable the Office to improve on its responsiveness to its mandate, working with other agencies to fight organised crime in the country.

The Executive Director averred that the Memorandum of Understanding is a new phase to collaborate effectively with MTN to reduce the activities of these criminals. She noted that as part of the Memorandum of Understanding, MTN mobile Money Limited would help to develop training content to guide the training of Officers of EOCO and their investigators to better position them to effectively gather intelligence.

The Commissioner of Police Maame Yaa Tiwaa Addo-Danquah stated that EOCO has been working together with MTN Mobile Money limited and the parties were able to secure a conviction sometime back. “I feel sad sometimes when people say the criminals are ahead of the security agencies and l know that with collective collaboration, we can stay ahead of them,” she added.

COP Addo-Danquah noted that the question is “if these criminals are working together, what of those fighting on those crimes?” with this, she said the collaboration will also to strengthen their communication around how frauds and its related crimes are reported.

The Executive Director called on the public to collaborate with the Office and other agencies to continue to fight organised crime in the country. She urged the media to direct people who report crimes to them to the law enforcement authorities.

MML CEO Hails the Partnership

Mr Shaibu Haruna, the Chief Executive Officer of the Mobile Money, MTN Ghana, commended the leadership of EOCO for the opportunity to collaborate in fighting organised crime.

Mr Shaibu Haruna noted that Mobile Money has become an integral part of the financial system, which needs to be protected. As such, he said they intend to use their collaboration to address these challenges.

The Chief Executive Officer of the Mobile Money insisted that it is their collective responsibility to work with all security agencies, especially EOCO, to stay ahead of crime.

Meanwhile, this collaboration is in line with a recent call by the CEO of MTN Ghana, Selorm Adadevoh, who called for a multi-sectoral collaboration to minimise mobile money and Internet fraud in the country.

Considering that Ghana is fast transitioning into a digital economy, the CEO said Internet and MoMo fraud pose a larger national threat and for that reason, stakeholders must work in unison to nip the menace in the bud. Until December last year, the CEO said, the incidence of MoMo fraud has subsided significantly.

However, fraudsters are always evolving, engineering more sophisticated strategies to bypass established security systems in a new wave. This collaboration will help to bring down the incidence of fraud drastically.

Meanwhile, the Economic and organised Crime Office(EOCO) was established in 2010 to lead Ghana’s efforts against the increasing challenges of economic and organised crime. It is responsible for preventing, detecting and investigating crimes such as money laundering, human trafficking, illegal cyber activity and tax fraud.