The Ghana Stock Exchange (GSE) has held its annual “Ring the Bell for Financial Literacy” programme in collaboration with the World Federation of Exchanges (WFE) and the International Organization of Securities Commissions (IOSCO) to commemorate World Investor Week.
The event, themed “Investor Resilience, Digital Deception and Scam Alert,” brought together representatives from the Ministry of Finance, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the Bank of Ghana, the Ghana Securities Industry Association, the Cyber Security Authority (CSA), and other key partners to discuss emerging forms of investment fraud, common warning signs, and practical ways to protect investors.
Technology Expanding Access and Fraud
The Managing Director of the Ghana Stock Exchange, Ms. Abena Amoah, said the annual programme forms part of a global effort to strengthen financial literacy and promote informed investment decisions.
Reflecting on the previous year’s discussions, she noted that technology continues to make capital markets far more accessible, enabling investors to open accounts and place orders through their phones from virtually anywhere in the world.
However, she warned that the very same channels bringing investors closer to the market are being actively exploited by fraudsters.
She explained that scammers now operate across social media, messaging applications and mobile money platforms, with some presenting themselves as financial influencers.
Their methods include cloning legitimate firms’ websites, impersonating corporate email addresses, using the names of established professionals and creating artificial urgency to pressure people into acting before conducting adequate checks.
“The damage goes beyond the person who loses money,” Ms. Amoah warned. “Every scam makes the next honest investor a little more hesitant.” She described trust as the market’s most valuable asset, stressing that it takes much longer to build than to lose.
GSE MD Shares Personal Scam Experience
To illustrate how sophisticated these threats have become, Ms. Amoah recounted a personal experience.
She shared that she received an email at about 5 a.m. on October 1 purporting to come from the chief executive of a company licensed by the Securities and Exchange Commission.
The message offered a short term trading opportunity with a guaranteed return of between 50 and 70 percent within just 12 hours.
It invited her to reply or contact the company through what it described as an official communication channel to receive documentation and further information before deciding whether to participate.
Ms. Amoah noted that the email contained no typographical errors and displayed the name of a company she dealt with regularly, making it appear convincing on the surface. However, her cybersecurity training prompted her to examine the sender’s address more closely.
Although the company’s name appeared as the display sender, the actual email address ended in “gmail.com.” Knowing the company did not use a Gmail address for official correspondence, the discrepancy alerted her to the suspicious offer. Ms. Amoah disclosed that, despite having almost 30 years of capital market experience, she initially found the message convincing.
She emphasized that without the specific training she had received on identifying warning signs, she could have fallen victim.
This led her to question how vulnerable ordinary members of the public without similar experience and training might be when confronted with such messages.
She said the experience reinforced the vital importance of protecting investors’ hard earned income and savings, as well as ensuring that investment opportunities are offered strictly within a properly regulated market. She warned that a breakdown in trust would undermine the market and its ability to attract investment.
Investor Resilience Requires Vigilance
Explaining the programme’s theme, Ms. Amoah defined investor resilience as the ability to recognise suspicious promises, such as guaranteed returns of 50 to 70 percent within 12 hours, and being prepared to walk away.
She clarified that resilience does not mean avoiding every financial risk, but understanding the difference between legitimate investment risk and outright fraud.
Digital deception, she added, involves fake endorsements, impersonation, cloned platforms and unsolicited messages offering supposedly exclusive opportunities. Scam awareness, she said, requires a practical habit of pausing, verifying and then deciding before acting.
GSE Expands Financial Literacy Campaign
Ms. Amoah emphasized that the GSE treats investor education as an essential part of how the market functions. She highlighted that since 2022, the Exchange has worked alongside the Young Investors Network, the Central Securities Depository, the Ghana Securities Industry Association, the Ministry of Finance and other partners to take financial literacy programmes directly to senior high schools and tertiary institutions nationwide.
Those efforts have reached more than 381,000 students across over 409 schools. Furthermore, she stated that the Exchange and its partners are actively making reliable tools available to investors, pointing to the Central Securities Depository’s recently launched investor app and platforms introduced by stockbrokers, such as IC Securities, as direct channels for market access and verified information that reduce reliance on hearsay.
She urged students and young investors, in particular, to pay close attention to presentations on digital innovation and financial scams.
Stressing that while young people’s frequent use of digital platforms makes them prime targets, it also positions them to lead the way in educating others about safe investment practices.
Media Urged to Verify Investment Stories
She expressed strong concern over unverified reports published as capital market exclusives that later prove false, calling on journalists to obtain information from credible, official sources and verify claims directly with transacting parties prior to publication.
Reminding media personnel of their responsibility, she emphasized that financial reporting directly impacts public savings, livelihoods, and futures making accuracy far more critical than speed.
“Scams spread quickly. Protection needs to spread even faster,” she stated, expressing gratitude to the WFE, IOSCO, the International Finance Corporation, the SEC, the Ghana Securities Industry Association, and other partners for their support.
She concluded by expressing confidence that the bell-ringing ceremony would serve as a catalyst for heightened financial literacy and a more resilient domestic capital market.
Government Reaffirms Commitment to Investor Protection
Ms. Elizabeth Owiredu, Head of the Capital Market Unit at the Ministry of Finance, reaffirmed the government’s commitment to strengthening investor protection.
Speaking on behalf of the Director of the Ministry’s Financial Sector Division, she said protecting investments had become increasingly important as more Ghanaians saved, invested and transacted through digital channels.
Ms. Owiredu described investor education and protection as central to the government’s economic agenda and broader capital market development efforts.
She noted that Ghana’s capital market had made significant progress following the Domestic Debt Exchange Programme, with improvements in fixed income and equity market activity and growing public interest in investing.
According to her, domestic investors now held about 70 percent of government securities, compared with approximately 30 percent held by foreign investors. She said the government welcomed this renewed confidence and remained fully committed to protecting it.
Government Warns of Impact of Investment Fraud
However, Ms. Owiredu cautioned that a single fraudulent scheme could wipe out a family’s life savings, disrupt market activity and undo years of painstaking work to build public trust.
She observed that while digital platforms had expanded access to financial services, they had also created opportunities for fraudsters to reach potential victims.
Growing interest in digital assets, she added, reflected innovation and demand for new investment opportunities, but equally raised concerns about public exposure to unregulated platforms.
Ms. Owiredu stated that a clear government policy response was essential to protect investors while supporting market development.
She reaffirmed the Ministry’s commitment to working with the Securities and Exchange Commission, the GSE and other stakeholders to strengthen investor education and protection, while supporting increased market participation, improved liquidity, more listings and innovative financial products.
Stronger Collaboration Needed to Fight Fraud
To effectively tackle fraud, Ms. Owiredu encouraged close collaboration among key regulatory and security bodies, including the National Insurance Commission, the National Pensions Regulatory Authority, the Cyber Security Authority, the Financial Intelligence Centre, the Economic and Organised Crime Office and the Ghana Police Service, to detect, disrupt and prosecute fraudulent schemes promptly.
She noted that the government supported financial literacy campaigns undertaken by regulators and market bodies, including the Ghana Securities Industry Association and the Young Investors Network.
She urged the media, faith based organisations, schools and community groups to carry investor education messages across the country.
Mrs. Owiredu also commended the GSE’s National Investment Quiz, stating that it was helping young people develop the knowledge, integrity and innovative thinking needed to shape Ghana’s financial future. She said the initiative was equipping young people to make informed decisions and avoid fraudulent schemes.
Government Plans Deeper Capital Market Cooperation
Looking ahead to 2027, Ms. Owiredu said the government would deepen cooperation with the GSE and other stakeholders to strengthen the capital market.
She explained that the government hoped to develop a clear framework to guide savings and investment by Ghanaians and support well regulated platforms through which ordinary citizens could invest more easily.
She emphasized that sustained collaboration among regulators, market operators and the investing public would help build an efficient, transparent and resilient capital market capable of mobilising the long term financing required for Ghana’s development.
SEC Warns of AI Enabled Investment Scams
Mr. Daniel Bebaako Mensah, speaking on behalf of the Acting Director General of the Securities and Exchange Commission, Dr. James Klutse Avedzi, said a strong capital market depended not only on investment and innovation, but also on trust, knowledge and investor protection.
He commended the Ghana Stock Exchange, the World Federation of Exchanges and the International Organization of Securities Commissions for organising the programme.
Mr. Bebaako Mensah said the growth in digital financial transactions had expanded access to financial services while creating more opportunities for fraudsters to reach the public, making financial literacy an essential form of protection.
He said the SEC continued to encounter Ponzi and pyramid schemes promising unusually high or guaranteed returns, unlicensed investment and fund management operations, digital investment scams and affinity fraud.
He explained that affinity fraud exploited trust within churches, families, associations and other communities.
Fraudsters Exploit Social Media Platforms
Mr. Bebaako Mensah warned that investment fraud was increasingly taking digital forms, with perpetrators using TikTok, WhatsApp and Telegram to promote schemes promising guaranteed daily returns.
He said fake trading platforms, fraudulent applications and artificial intelligence generated reviews and endorsements were also being used to make fraudulent schemes appear credible. These tools, he noted, enabled a single fraudster to reach thousands of potential victims at very little cost.
Mr. Bebaako Mensah urged investors to verify investment opportunities before committing their money, cautioning against relying solely on certificates, logos, social media pages or assurances from promoters.
He said fraudsters could forge certificates and copy official logos, making it necessary to confirm a firm’s licensing status through the SEC’s official channels.
He advised investors to be cautious about guaranteed or above market returns, pressure to invest immediately and offers that appeared too good to be true. Emphasizing that investors should also insist on proper documentation and conduct independent checks.
SEC Proposes Stiffer Sanctions
Mr. Bebaako Mensah explained that the Securities Industry Act, 2016 (Act 929), as amended, mandated the SEC to regulate and promote an efficient, fair and transparent securities market that protected investors and market integrity.
He said the Virtual Asset Service Providers Act, 2025 (Act 1154), also assigned the Commission responsibilities as a co regulator of virtual asset services in Ghana.
As investment activity increasingly moved into digital and virtual asset spaces, he said the SEC’s response included licensing and supervising market operators, issuing public warnings about unlicensed entities, overseeing virtual asset activities and providing investor education through programmes such as “Time with the SEC.”
He said the Commission also collaborated with the Bank of Ghana, the Economic and Organised Crime Office, the Financial Intelligence Centre and the Cybercrime Unit of the Ghana Police Service.
Mr. Bebaako Mensah disclosed that work was underway to strengthen the legal framework for dealing with prohibited investment schemes and their promoters.
Under the proposed reforms, he said, the SEC would have stronger powers to seal the premises of operators of prohibited schemes, freeze their assets and seek forfeiture through the courts.
The proposals would also hold promoters and financial influencers jointly liable for promoting such schemes. According to him, the proposed sanctions included fines of up to 250,000 penalty units, imprisonment of up to 15 years or both.
He said the measures reflected the seriousness of investment fraud and its potential to destroy livelihoods, families and confidence in the financial system.
SEC Urges Public to Report Suspicious Schemes
Mr. Bebaako Mensah encouraged the public to report suspicious investment schemes and unlicensed operators through the SEC’s official channels, including its toll free line, 0800 100 065, and website, www.sec.gov.gh.
He said reports should also be made to the appropriate law enforcement agencies and, where money laundering was suspected, to the Financial Intelligence Centre.
Mr. Bebaako Mensah described the bell ringing ceremony as a call for vigilance, responsible investing and collective action against financial fraud. He urged investors to question promises of easy or guaranteed returns and never allow urgency to replace due diligence.
He reaffirmed the SEC’s commitment to investor education, effective regulation and the development of a vibrant capital market.
CSA Calls for Stronger Coordination Against Cybercrime
The Head of Cybersecurity Technology and Standards at the Cyber Security Authority (CSA), Mr. Jake France, also highlighted the growing threat of technology-driven investment fraud and called for stronger institutional coordination to combat cybercrime.
Mr. France cited mobile money fraud, fintech-related schemes, impersonation, online blackmail, and ransomware among the primary threats managed by the Authority.
He cautioned that modern investment scams increasingly rely on artificial intelligence-enabled deception, fraudulent social media campaigns, and fake trading platforms.
To strengthen institutional defenses, Mr. France encouraged organizations to engage Sectoral Computer Emergency Response Teams for technical support during cybersecurity incidents.
He also disclosed that the CSA is preparing standards to assess and certify digital security products, warning that some tools marketed as vulnerability assessment software contain undisclosed functions that jeopardize organizational systems. He emphasized the importance of consulting industry practitioners to ensure regulations reflect operational realities.
On enforcement, Mr. France outlined the CSA’s close operational alignment with the Ghana Police Service and the Data Protection Commission, noting that overlapping technical, legal, and regulatory issues require joint investigations. Addressing the cross-border nature of digital crime, he stressed that sustained cooperation with INTERPOL and foreign law enforcement partners remains critical to tracking syndicates operating outside Ghana.
Mr. France however, expressed concern over the underreporting of cyberbullying and online abuse, urging victims to lodge formal complaints through dedicated CSA channels to support a secure and resilient digital ecosystem.
Source: Isaac Kofi Dzokpo
