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Police Raise Security Concerns As Mobile Money Business Continue To Boom

By CitifmOnline.com
Crime & Punishment Police Raise Security Concerns As Mobile Money Business Continue To Boom
FEB 11, 2018 LISTEN

The Accra Regional Police Commander, DCOP George Alex Mensah, has attributed the increasing spate of attacks on mobile money businesses across the country to what he describes as the alarming rise in the number of operators.

According to him, it is impossible for the Police Service, with its already limited numbers to provide security cover for all the ‘momo’ points.

A wave of robbery attacks at Mobile Money joints has hit the country with Accra being the worst affected, considering that hundreds of agents serving many Ghanaians who are either sending, receiving, or loading money into their wallets in the capital.

There is virtually no security at most mobile mobile joints, despite the huge transactions taking place in some cases.

Two persons were recently shot at a mobile money operation point at Busia Junction near Odorkor in Accra in a robbery attack. Several attacks have also been recorded in other regions of the country.

DCOP Mensah on Point Blank segment of Eyewitness News indicated that the lack of security at most of these operation points is to blame for these recent attacks.

“The mobile money business is becoming an albatross. The rate at which they are springing up is alarming and they spring up at places which are not safe and I wonder who gives them permission to set up these businesses. These are business ventures and they are dealing with money. Criminals always put their eyes on cash, they prefer to steal cash to property so if you are licensing people to operate mobile money then you have to make sure the place they are going to operate are secure but no one controls that.

“They spring out at any corner and these armed robbers are just making meat out of them so it is a worry for the Police Service… We have scheduled a meeting with the telecom if we can discuss how best we can at least make sure anybody who is going to set up this money business will have a secure environment. Some of these are even operating on bicycles and these are easy prey for armed robbers.”

Regulation for operation
Proffering remedies to the challenges, DCOP Mensah also emphasized the need for the creation of a regulation that will determine the location of mobile money operation points.

This he believes will clamp down on these attacks.
“The banking sector is such that there is a law that without the presence of an armed officer you cannot open a bank so at the banks, if by 8.oclock, the police officer is not there, you cannot open.

“We cannot man every mobile money joint. There must be a regulation as to where you can operate a mobile money business.”

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