Government partners Interpol, FBI to fight rising cybercrime wave

Minister of Communications Sam George says Ghana is intensifying its global partnerships with leading cybercrime enforcement agencies as part of a sweeping campaign to combat the country’s rising cyberfraud cases.

Appearing before Parliament on October 30, 2025, the Minister said the government’s collaboration with international bodies had strengthened Ghana’s capacity to detect and respond to sophisticated online fraud schemes.

“It’s an undeniable fact that cybercrime and cyber fraud issues are on the rise due to increasingly advanced tactics used by criminals and fraudsters,” he said.

He disclosed that between January and September 2025, the Cyber Security Authority (CSA) recorded 14,425 cybercrime cases affecting individuals and businesses across the country. “The CSA has adopted a multifaceted approach to dealing with these issues,” Sam George explained, citing regulatory enforcement, stakeholder cooperation, and public awareness as key components.

According to him, Ghana’s engagement with partners such as Interpol, the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the UK’s National Cyber Crime Agency, the Africa Forum of Computer Emergency Response Teams, and the Forum of Incident Response and Security Teams (FIRST) had been particularly vital.

“These engagements provide access to threat intelligence as well as coordinated cyber incident response measures,” he noted.

Sam George revealed that such partnerships had already yielded concrete results.

“In June 2025, our collaboration with the CID of the Ghana Police led to the arrest of 65 suspects, including 49 foreign nationals involved in online fraud,” he said. “A further operation in August resulted in 39 arrests across the Greater Accra Region.”

He added that the CSA had deepened cooperation with major social media and digital platform owners such as Meta and ByteDance, leading to the removal of 203 fraudulent websites and 738 fake social media accounts impersonating public figures. “We are now working to establish similar relationships with the owners of X, Snapchat, and LinkedIn,” he said.

The Minister also announced that telecom service providers had blocked 1,380 mobile numbers used for scams, while public education had been intensified. “Since January, the CSA has issued 11 public alerts and four technical alerts to inform and educate the public,” he said.

Sam George said the government was reviewing the Cybersecurity Act, 2020 (Act 1038), to strengthen Ghana’s legal response to cyber threats.

“We’ve received over 600 memoranda from the public and will hold stakeholder engagements before submitting amendments next year,” he said. “Our aim is to build a safe, informed, and accountable digital space for all Ghanaians.”