• The government of Ghana is being cautioned against treating its digital finance ecosystem mainly as a tool for taxation by renowned economist, Prof. Godfred Bokpin. Prof. Bokpin, a professor of finance at the University of Ghana Business School, made the call in a yet-to-be-aired documentary, “The Trust Crisis,” which aims to address fraud and mistrust in the country’s digital economy.

According to Prof. Bokpin, digital payments, fintech platforms, and mobile money services should first be used to build an inclusive and productive economy, rather than solely focusing on taxation. He warns that if government places taxation ahead of the broader benefits of digitisation, consumers and businesses may respond negatively.

Prof. Bokpin explained that many informal-sector workers struggle to meet the documentation requirements of conventional banking, making digital payments and fintech platforms crucial for financial inclusion. He added that Ghana’s large informal sector and unbanked population make digital finance critical to economic transformation.

In 2024, the Bank of Ghana reported that payment service providers processed about 8.1 billion transactions valued at approximately GH¢3 trillion. However, the growth has also been linked to an increase in fraud cases, with 16,733 cases reported in 2024, up from 15,865 in 2023.

Prof. Bokpin said fraud and mistrust could weaken public participation in digital finance and push some users back to cash. He cited traders who reject mobile money payments due to concerns about fraud.

Ghana’s digital payment ecosystem continues to grow rapidly, and the government must treat trust as a central part of digital policy. Prof. Bokpin advocates for a broader approach that focuses on reducing transaction costs, deepening financial inclusion, expanding the formal economy, and supporting growth.

The Digital Economy Forum, under the theme, “The Trust Crisis: Why Fraud Is Holding Back Ghana’s Digital Economy,” will air on JoyNews and Joy FM on Wednesday, July 22, 2026, at 8 p.m. The forum will bring together regulators, banks, fintech companies, telecommunications firms, security agencies, and consumers to examine whether Ghana’s regulatory system is keeping pace with the growth of digital finance.

“We should not only look at it from the perspective of taxation. We should look at it in terms of the broader economic benefit. If you always put tax ahead of digitisation, the market will react differently.”

Prof. Bokpin further emphasized that digitisation should be used to build a taxable economy, saying, “The government’s goal should not be that we want to leverage this to tax you. Let us look at how we want to leverage it to grow an economy, a taxable economy that allows the state to get the maximum tax revenue from that.”