By: Nana
Appiah Acquaye
The Sierra Leonean
government has convened a two-day national consultative workshop to develop a
comprehensive roadmap for combating mobile money fraud and strengthening the
security of the country’s growing digital financial ecosystem.
The workshop, being held
from August 18 to 19 at the National Communications Authority (NatCA) Building
in South Ridge, IMATT, is being organised by the Ministry of Communication,
Technology and Innovation in partnership with the National Communications Authority.
The initiative has brought
together stakeholders from the financial, telecommunications and security
sectors, including representatives of the Financial Intelligence Agency, the
Parliamentary Committee on Information and Communication Technology, the Bank
of Sierra Leone, the National Communications Authority, the Ministry of
Communication, Technology and Innovation and the National Cybersecurity
Coordination Center.
Also participating are the
National Civil Registration Authority, mobile money and telecommunications
operators, civil society organisations, government agencies and private-sector
stakeholders.
The broad representation is
intended to strengthen coordination among regulators, service providers, law
enforcement institutions and other stakeholders involved in preventing,
detecting and responding to mobile money fraud.
The workshop forms part of
government’s response to commitments made to Parliament concerning the security
of digital financial infrastructure. Following recent parliamentary discussions
on digital public infrastructure and interoperable digital identity systems,
the government committed to bringing relevant stakeholders together to develop
coordinated mechanisms for addressing fraud risks.
The national roadmap is
expected to provide a framework for preventing mobile money fraud, improving
institutional coordination and strengthening response mechanisms across the
digital financial services ecosystem.
The initiative comes as
mobile money continues to play an increasingly important role in Sierra Leone,
with citizens relying on digital financial platforms for transactions, savings
and remittances. Government and industry stakeholders say stronger safeguards
are essential to protecting users and maintaining public confidence in digital
financial services.
