Ghanaian Consultant Addresses Zanzibar Government Cabinet On Financial Crimes

A Ghanaian financial crimes consultant, David Antwi of Financial Crimes Africa Consultancy, has stressed the need to put long term digital structures in place that will 

prevent fraudsters from getting the better of 

state and financial institutions.

Mr. Antwi made this known while he was speaking to a cross-section of the Government of Zanzibar on June 6, 2017. The meeting was at the behest of the Government of Zanzibar and attended by all 16 ministers of the state of Zanzibar, deputy ministers of state and the Chief of Staff

. The Deputy Chief of Staff, Hassan Yakout, who kicked off the meeting, underscored the need to address the current scourge of financial crimes which continues to affect state and financial institutions. He especially asked Mr. Antwi to discuss the issue of ATM fraud, what the current trends are and ways to mitigate it. Responding to the deputy Chief of Staff, Mr. Antwi who is a graduate of Achimota School and the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science & Technology, intimated that in most cases, financial crimes are undetected due to a combination of insufficient training for both staff and customers, failure to recognize red flags or not having best-in-class software to track and prevent these crimes. Mr. Antwi who is a Certified Fraud Examiner, was speaking on behalf of PerTerms, a local consultancy. He outlined some of the ways in which the state of Zanzibar could safeguard their financial assets such as awareness of financial crime trends and red flags, staff training and reliance on the appropriate software and technical know-how. These steps, he indicated, would allow Zanzibar institutions to be more proactive, rather than merely reacting to the actions of fraudsters. He also stressed that such actions would boost consumer confidence and attract much required capital from foreign investors. “The key steps in dealing with financial crimes are prevention, detection and deterrence, with prevention and deterrence the most important”, David Antwi said. “The right training coupled with application of appropriate software will mitigate financial crimes and thwart even the savviest fraudsters”. Mr. Antwi also spoke about the evolution of financial crimes, some of his financial crime experiences at US financial institutions, critical policies and strategies to prevent fraud and some of the best practices and world-class software to fight these financial crimes. Mr. David Antwi can be reached at: info@financialcrimesafrica.com or 055-871-0847 (local) or +1-571-247-6944 (US)