BoG in a statement on June 14 warned the public against the illegal activities of some 97 illegal loan apps.

The 97 applications were cited for engaging in unlicensed lending activities in contravention of the Banks and Specialized Deposit-Taking Institutions Act, 2016 (930).

Speaking at a public forum in Accra, the Head of Financial Stability at the Bank of Ghana, Dr. Joseph France disclosed that the Central Bank is finding it difficult to deal with the problem because these fraudsters who are part of a syndicate would often get new SIM cards to continue with the illicit activities once their existing ones are blocked.

“They don’t do it alone, and they do it with other agencies including the telcos, and so we are also collaborating with the telcos and the NCA and all the other agencies. These numbers are often blocked, but there are impediments in the system, so you block the numbers, and they appear the next day with other numbers.”

The Bank of Ghana admonished the public to desist from patronising such apps because the “activities of these entities significantly breach customer data and privacy laws as well as consumer protection requirements and norms with unfavourable implications on the integrity and wellbeing of patrons.”