Google bans and removes 200 illicit Ghanaian loan apps from the Play Store

Notwithstanding the obstacles encountered in the course of the year, the Bank of Ghana asserts that it did not abandon its efforts to adopt financial inclusion as a policy goal, acknowledging its capacity to foster widespread economic expansion and mitigate poverty.

In light of this, the central bank declared that it will keep utilizing its regulatory and policy tools to create the favorable regulatory framework needed to advance digital financial services for the good of all economic actors. Governor Ernest Addison recently stated at the Chartered Institute of Bankers’ Governor’s Day that there are 52 non-bank payment service providers that provide a variety of payment options to satisfy the “increasing” expectations of consumers.

According to him, the central bank “successfully” engaged banks, DEMIs, PSPs, and MTOs in the inward remittance termination space to further advance fintech activities. They also implemented policies and measures related to inward remittance termination services to ensure fairness for all market participants.

The central bank, he added, launched the first cohort of its Regulatory Sandbox to foster innovations in new digital business models that aren’t explicitly or implicitly covered by current regulations yet have the potential to solve an issue with financial inclusion.

Also, Dr Addison mentioned that “surveillance and investigations into activities of illegal lending applications have commenced with the identification of over 200 loan apps offering unapproved and unlicensed lending products to the Ghanaian consumer”.

In response, he said that financial institutions were cautioned to use only digital credit products that have been approved by the Bank of Ghana in two distinct public notices that were published in August 2022 and July 2023.

In this regard, he stated that the bank “continuously engaged Google’s Regulatory and Policy unit, which facilitated the removal and barring of 200 loan apps from the Google Play Store” .

Since then, Dr. Addison has stated that “Google has reviewed their Personal Loan Policy to restrict these lending apps from accessing device information including SMS and contacts” .

Furthermore, he declared that the central bank, working with the Ghana Police Service, the Economic Organised Crime Office (EOCO), and the Cyber Security Authority (CSA) Ghana, launched an operation that resulted in the arrest of 420 people in July 2023, three of whom were foreign nationals.

Source: Ghanatodayonline.com