The Bank of Ghana (BoG) has raised concerns over the number of staff involved in fraudulent activities in banks and specialised deposit-taking institutions (SDIs).
Data from the Central Bank’s 2023 fraud report reveals that staff-related fraud from banks and SDIs rose from 188 in 2022 to 274 in 2023, representing an increase of 46%.
Out of the 274 cases of fraud recorded involving staff in 2023, 211 were involved in cash theft (cash suppression), which refers to the process of concealing and diverting cash deposits or cash received from a customer, as compared to 140 staff involved in 2022.
The Bank of Ghana, alarmed by the statistics, has directed banks and SDIs to strengthen their internal controls and enhance staff due diligence during recruitment, as well as reinforce continuous in-house staff training on professional conduct.
The report also disclosed that banks in 2023 reported 969 fraud incidents, representing a 17% decrease compared to 2022.
However, the financial loss to banks surged to a staggering GH¢63 million in 2023, representing a 21% increase from the GH¢52 million recorded in the previous year.
Cash Theft recorded the highest fraud loss in 2023 with a value of GH¢14.8 million, a steep rise of 14 times over the GH¢1 million recorded in 2022.
The spike is because of recorded cases of cash theft in foreign currency and movements in foreign exchange during the year under review.
Cyber/email fraud came in second place with a loss of GH¢10.5 million.
Fraudulent withdrawals from accounts recorded a loss value of GH¢8.4 million.
Forgery and manipulation of documents recorded a loss value of GH¢6.9 million in 2023, although it represented a steep 78% decline from the GH¢32 million recorded in 2022.
The last of the top five fraud types in banks was cheque fraud and it recorded a loss value of GH¢6.1 million.
