We commend the joint cybersecurity taskforce that has arrested 422 operators of unlicensed digital loan application platforms, including three nationals, for distributing the data of clients and threatening them with death, as well as extortion and cyberbullying.
The Cyber Security Authority (CSA), for instance, says it receives about 250 reports of cyberbullying against users of the illegal operators' Apps.
The taskforce, including the Economic and Organised Crime Office, Bank of Ghana (BoG), CSA and Ghana Police Service, did the arrests in three different locations in Accra on July 10, this year.
For the purposes of warning the public against doing business with the unlicensed entities, we provide their names as provided by the taskforce as follows: Mascedi Consultant, Valley A. Consult, Makto Technology Limited and FourCredy, which operates the FourCredy, FiCashX, 4Cedi, Aliloan, Boseapa, CediBoom, Cocoaloan, Mach Loan, Easy Loan, Onloan and other mobile applications (Apps) involved in the scheme.
Though we cannot withdraw our commendation for the taskforce for its good work, we think the arrest of the operators of the unlicensed digital lending platforms speaks volumes of how institutions of state appear not to be on top of their assignments.
We agree that in certain situations, the only option is the reactive approach but the most expected thing is that the institutions should be more proactive than anything else.
Also, we do not intend to close our eyes to the fact that state institutions need public support to be able to work effectively, yet we wish to ask that should they always wait for the public before making the moves?
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We know that the police, for instance, sometimes act on suspicion, but what about the Bank of Ghana, especially when it comes to the operations of unlicensed or illegal financial entities, particularly banks and specialised deposit-taking institutions and online credit platforms?
The operations of Ponzi schemes and how they have devastated the lives of some of their customers in this country have not been forgotten.
How long should such entities exist before they are found out to be illegal?
How long have the online platforms whose operators have now been arrested been in existence?
It is unfair that institutions which should be proactive allow innocent citizens to fall victim to unlicensed or illegal credit and deposit-taking entities before they go reactive, at which time the harm has already been done, and usually irreversible.
In the circumstances, the best option is that members of the public should check the backgrounds of deposit-taking and loans companies before doing business with them.
Maybe, in order to avoid headaches in the country's financial space, the traditional banks should ease some of their conditions and also adopt some or all the conditions of the non-bank financial entities that make them attract customers.
We hope the BoG will uphold all the measures it has promised to undertake to sanitise the system such as intensified public education; collaboration with relevant state actors and international platform service providers; and building a safe digital financial service industry that safeguards the interest of consumers.
