The Chief Executive Officer of the Financial Intelligence Centre has warned that mobile money platforms have become significant conduits for money laundering as criminals shift tactics following stricter regulations in traditional banking.
Albert Kwadwo Twum Boafo made the revelation during an interview on TV3’s Hot Issues programme on Sunday, November 9, 2025. His comments highlight an emerging vulnerability in Ghana’s financial ecosystem as criminals exploit perceived regulatory gaps in the mobile money sector.
The FIC boss explained that enhanced monitoring and restrictions on large transactions through banks and other financial institutions have pushed individuals engaged in questionable activities toward mobile money platforms. These platforms, which have revolutionized financial inclusion across Ghana, now face scrutiny over their potential exploitation for illicit financial flows.
Mobile money services have experienced explosive growth in Ghana over the past decade. The platforms enable millions of Ghanaians, including those without traditional bank accounts, to send and receive money, pay bills, and conduct business transactions using their mobile phones. This convenience, however, has created new challenges for financial regulators.
The warning comes as government unveiled comprehensive measures to strengthen Ghana’s anti money laundering framework. Speaking on behalf of the Minister for Finance, Dr. Cassiel Ato Forson, at the opening of the 2025 Financial Action Task Force and Inter Governmental Action Group Against Money Laundering in West Africa Joint Experts Meeting in Accra, Deputy Minister for Finance Thomas Nyarko Ampem announced decisive steps to disrupt criminal financial networks.
The government has established a unified national response mechanism bringing together the Ministry of Finance, Financial Intelligence Centre, Bank of Ghana, Economic and Organised Crime Office, Ghana Revenue Authority, and the security services. This coordination ensures intelligence sharing and joint operations become standard practice rather than exceptions.
Ghana has undertaken targeted risk assessments in emerging areas such as virtual assets, non profit organizations, and environmental crime related transactions. These assessments aim to identify vulnerabilities before criminals can exploit them systematically.
The Deputy Finance Minister emphasized that government has already taken significant steps to strengthen national resilience. These include the passage of the Anti Money Laundering Act, the establishment and empowerment of the Financial Intelligence Centre, and the rollout of a new National AML/CFT/CPF Policy for 2025 to 2029.
The three day experts meeting brought together policymakers, security agencies, financial intelligence specialists, and international partners to review compliance frameworks and strengthen collaboration among nations in West Africa and beyond. The gathering reflects regional recognition that financial crimes transcend national borders and require coordinated responses.
Mobile money platforms operate under regulations from the Bank of Ghana, which issued comprehensive Anti Money Laundering, Combating the Financing of Terrorism, and the Proliferation of Weapons of Mass Destruction Guidelines in February 2025. These guidelines, prepared jointly with the Financial Intelligence Centre, became effective immediately upon release.
However, enforcement challenges remain significant. Mobile money agents operate across the country, often in remote areas with limited regulatory oversight. The peer to peer nature of many transactions makes it difficult to track suspicious patterns without sophisticated monitoring systems.
The platforms process billions of cedis in transactions monthly. While legitimate users appreciate the convenience and financial inclusion benefits, criminals have reportedly identified opportunities to move illicit funds through multiple small transactions that evade detection thresholds.
Financial institutions must report suspicious transactions to the Financial Intelligence Centre under current law. This obligation extends to mobile money operators. However, the FIC boss’s comments suggest that compliance may be inconsistent or that monitoring systems lack the sophistication to detect sophisticated laundering schemes.
Money launderers typically employ three stages in their operations. The placement stage involves introducing illicit funds into the financial system. The layering stage obscures the origin through complex transactions. The integration stage makes the money appear legitimate. Mobile money platforms, with their high transaction volumes and sometimes limited documentation requirements, could facilitate all three stages.
The shift toward mobile money for money laundering mirrors global trends. Across Africa, financial intelligence units have reported increased exploitation of mobile financial services. Criminals appreciate the platforms’ speed, the difficulty of tracing transactions across multiple accounts, and sometimes weaker customer identification protocols compared to traditional banks.
Ghana’s Financial Intelligence Centre has statutory responsibility for receiving and analyzing suspicious transaction reports. The Centre provides actionable intelligence to relevant authorities when it identifies potentially illegal financial activities. However, its effectiveness depends on the quality and timeliness of reports from financial service providers.
The Bank of Ghana has implemented transaction limits on mobile money accounts to mitigate risks. Basic accounts have lower daily and monthly transaction limits than fully verified accounts. These tiered requirements aim to balance financial inclusion with security concerns.
Twum Boafo has led the FIC since his appointment as Acting CEO in February 2025 by President John Dramani Mahama. Under his leadership, the Centre has taken a more assertive approach to enforcement, as evidenced by recent high profile investigations and the unfreezing of accounts following thorough inquiries.
The government’s new unified response mechanism represents an acknowledgment that fragmented approaches cannot effectively combat sophisticated financial crimes. By bringing together multiple agencies with different mandates and capabilities, authorities hope to create a comprehensive monitoring and enforcement ecosystem.
International cooperation forms a crucial component of the strategy. Ghana has strengthened its participation in GIABA, which undertakes mutual evaluations of member states’ anti money laundering systems. The country has worked to improve its technical compliance ratings following assessments that identified deficiencies.
The Deputy Finance Minister called for greater African representation in global financial governance, arguing that the continent must participate more meaningfully in shaping standards that directly affect African economies. This position reflects frustration with standards developed primarily by Western nations that may not adequately consider African contexts.
However, he acknowledged that the most sophisticated legislation will remain ineffective if citizens, communities, and institutions are not aware of their role in enforcement. This recognition has prompted outreach efforts to various stakeholders, including recent seminars with faith based organizations about preventing the abuse of religious institutions for money laundering.
Mobile money operators now face increased pressure to strengthen their anti money laundering systems. This may require significant investments in technology, training, and compliance personnel. Smaller operators may struggle with the costs, potentially leading to market consolidation.
The FIC boss’s warning serves multiple purposes. It alerts the public to the issue, puts mobile money operators on notice that they face scrutiny, and signals to criminals that authorities are aware of their tactics. Whether these warnings translate into effective enforcement depends on resources, political will, and technical capacity.
For legitimate mobile money users, the implications may include more stringent verification requirements, transaction monitoring that occasionally flags legitimate activity, and potentially slower processing as compliance checks increase. These trade offs between security and convenience will shape the sector’s evolution.
The coming months will reveal whether Ghana’s strengthened anti money laundering framework can effectively address the mobile money challenge while preserving the financial inclusion benefits these platforms provide. Success requires balancing regulatory oversight with innovation, enforcement with access, and national security with economic growth.
Source: newsghana.com.gh
