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Businesses and especially financial institutions must put in place appropriate strategies to facilitate human and institutional capacity building to enhance knowledge in cybersecurity across sectors.

The Deputy Minister for Communications and Digitalisation, Hon. Mrs. Ama Pomaa Boateng, said this at a Breakfast Meeting on Ghana’s Cybersecurity Act, 2020 (Act 1038) and the Bank of Ghana Cyber and Information Security Directive for Board of Directors of Banks, on Thursday, October 20, 2022, in Accra.

She indicated that per statistics from the World Economic Forum (WEF)’s 2022 Global Risks Report, about 95% of cybersecurity issues can be traced to human error. “This should not surprise us as the human factor is the most important element of the cybersecurity chain and that is why I urge you all to consciously build a cybersecurity culture in your establishments. It is necessary to intensify awareness creation on cyber risks and to promote appropriate incident reporting and response practices.”, she added.

According to the Deputy Minister, cybercriminals are now responsible for huge economic losses per year and state-sponsored hacking groups pose greater threats to digital economies. It is therefore necessary to engage capable and trusted individuals in organisations to secure networks against attackers. She advised businesses to consider mentorship, career guidance, talent development and professional development programmes towards developing their required cybersecurity manpower needs, for the short, medium and long term cyber-driven business goals.

Mrs. Audrey Mnisi Mireku, Banking Ops, Risk and Cyber Security Executive at the Ghana Association of Banks (GAB), remarked that it was the key responsibility of Board of Directors and Senior executives to implement cybersecurity policies in banks and that, failing to invest in cybersecurity could lead to costly attacks, interruption to operations, reputational damage, and legal liabilities. “These are some of the challenges that the banks need to overcome”, she added.

The Chief Executive Officer of the GAB, Mr. John Awuah, said they all had a duty as directors to ensure that their institutions were complying with laid down regulations and directives guiding information security issues in the financial sector.

The Breakfast Meeting was part of activities to mark the National Cyber Security Awareness Month (NCSAM) 2022. It was organised by the Ghana Association of Banks (GAB) in collaboration with the Cyber Security Authority to sensitise Ghanaians on cybersecurity/cybercrime trends in the country.