By Ebenezer NJOKU & Juliet ETEFE
Inadequate technology expertise and a critical lack of professional certification have emerged as the chief causes of rising staff-related fraud in the banking sector, industry experts revealed following the release of alarming statistics from the Bank of Ghana (BOG).
As staff involvement in fraudulent activities surged by 33 percent in 2024, banking specialists are calling for increased investment in IT security, implementation of artificial intelligence monitoring systems and stringent professional certification requirements to stem the growing crisis.
“Many banks are not prepared to invest seriously in technology expertise to the degree that they should. They want to use the old methodology to solve a new problem,” said Dr. Richmond Atuahene, a banking consultant – adding that many financial institutions purchase sophisticated systems without proper understanding or oversight.
According to the BoG’s 2024 Fraud Report, the number of staff implicated in fraudulent activities at Banks and Specialised Deposit-Taking Institutions (SDIs) increased from 274 in 2023 to 365 in 2024. Cash theft emerged as the predominant offence, accounting for 75 percent of cases (274 staff) in 2024… up from 211 staff (77 percent) in 2023.
Despite these alarming figures, only 155 staff – representing 43 percent of those involved in fraudulent activities – were dismissed. Of these dismissals, 83 (54 percent) were due to cash theft-related fraud, suggesting significant gaps in accountability and oversight.
Professional certification crisis
Robert Dzato, Chief Executive Officer-Chartered Institute of Bankers (CIB) Ghana, identified the lack of professional certification as a fundamental issue allowing unqualified individuals to access sensitive positions.
“Take medicine, take law, take accountancy. You cannot practice as a lawyer if you were not properly trained, properly certified as a lawyer,” Mr. Dzato explained.
“Unfortunately, in banking this is not the case. If you take the total industry, over 20,000 employees, you find that less than 10 percent are chartered bankers,” he added.
This certification gap creates an environment where ethical standards are difficult to enforce.
“The calibre of people who join the financial industry can sometimes be a bit questionable. Unfortunately, when people get in and they buy expensive items nobody is watching them,” Dr. Atuahene stated, calling for lifestyle audits of staff.
Technology oversight weaknesses
The experts also pointed to significant vulnerabilities in banks’ technological systems, with Dr. Atuahene particularly critical of procurement practices.
“The systems are purchased offshore… we have the oversight, but we do not really know what goes in. So if you get somebody who is very intelligent – and very crafty and very good in IT – you can sit somewhere and do all the things that we are saying they are doing. And it will take them a while before they realize that somebody has beaten the system,” he argued.
He warned that banks lack proper contingency planning for system failures, particularly those outside the commercial bank bracket: “If many SDIs in the country are hit on a large scale, it will take us an appreciable length of time to recover.”
Multi-pronged solutions
In response to these challenges, BoG has issued directives for financial institutions to strengthen internal controls, enhance staff due diligence during recruitment, reinforce professional conduct training and ensure prosecution of culprits as a deterrent.
The e-Crime Bureau Ghana has recommended implementing AI-powered digital monitoring solutions to detect unusual employee behaviour patterns in real-time. The Bureau also advised establishing independent whistleblower channels managed by third parties to overcome cultural barriers that prevent colleagues from reporting suspicious activities.
“Financial institutions must additionally put internal control mechanisms to the test in order to establish their levels of adequacy for preventing, detecting and responding to activities that result in fraud occurrence,” the e-Crime Bureau stated in their analysis.
Meanwhile, CIB Ghana has launched an ethics certification programme in collaboration with the Bank of Ghana – though Dzato noted that only 11 banks have enrolled their staff despite the programme being offered free of charge.
“I am not saying that completing the ethics certification resolves all the problems,” Mr. Dzato clarified.
“But the point is people are doing things that maybe they are not certified to do and therefore they are doing anything,” he added.
The CIB Ghana head stated that addressing banking fraud requires a multi-stakeholder approach: “We need to take a systemic or an ecosystem approach to it. And that would take both the regulator of banks, the operators – which are banks – and the educator, which is Chartered Institute of Bankers, because that’s the tripod on which the banking industry rests”.
The CIB is now planning to expand its initiatives with an Ethics 2.0 programme incorporating real fraud cases, developing standards for key banking positions and launching an Ethics and Banking Challenge for university students.
Mr. Dzato also emphasised the need for a centralised database of banking professionals: “If someone misconducts himself and gets fired from one bank… that person may either be set up or pitch a tent in another bank. So we need a certain visibility beyond sanctions”.
Dr. Atuahene called for a government-led industry summit to address these issues comprehensively.
