Banking Consultant, Dr. Richmond Atuahene, has lashed out at financial institutions that fail to comply with money laundering regulations, warning that such negligence enables fraudulent customers to exploit loopholes in the system.
He accused some banks of ignoring due diligence procedures, questioning whether their actions were deliberate attempts to attract deposits from questionable sources.
Speaking on the Citi Breakfast Show on Thursday, October 23, Dr. Atuahene urged financial institutions to be more vigilant and proactive in enforcing anti-money laundering laws.
“If I’m a bank staff member and I earn GHC10,000, and the next time you see a payment of GHC200,000, that is a suspicious transaction. That should put the bank on alert and do investigations, and where they think it’s suspicious transactions, they report to the Financial Intelligence Centre (FIC), for them to continue with the procedure,” he said.
Dr. Atuahene emphasised that Ghana’s financial laws and global standards require strict monitoring and reporting of unusual transactions, yet many banks continue to overlook these obligations.
“There are rules and regulations; it’s done all over the world. I don’t know if it’s financial weaknesses in the banks or because they are just looking for deposits and have forgotten the basics in account opening,” he stated.
He expressed concern that competition in the banking sector may be undermining compliance standards.
“I don’t know the banks, whether it’s a lack of it or because they are looking for deposits, but the basic things in the money laundering and the current Financial Act are not being complied with. I believe that in view of competition, basic controls are missing in the institutions,” he said.
His comments come after the Attorney General and Minister for Justice, Dr. Dominic Ayine, has revealed another layer of financial wrongdoing involving the former Chief Executive Officer of the National Food and Buffer Stock Company, Abdul-Wahab Hannan.
Dr. Ayine during the Government Accountability Series disclosed that investigations have uncovered a complex scheme of money laundering involving suspicious transfers totaling over GHS40.5 million through Sawtina Enterprise, a company linked to the former CEO.
According to the Attorney General, the illicit transfers were made to various individuals and entities, raising serious concerns about financial impropriety, abuse of office, and attempts to conceal the origins of criminal proceeds.
Meanwhile, the scale of financial losses in the ongoing National Service Authority (NSA) scandal is far greater than initially reported, according to the Attorney General and Minister for Justice, Dr. Dominic Ayine.
Dr. Ayine revealed that a forensic audit conducted by the Auditor General has uncovered a total of GHS 2.2 billion in funds either stolen or illegally expended within the NSA.
This figure is a staggering jump from the GHS 548 million originally identified by investigators as of June 2025.
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