CST saga: Banks are more vulnerable to cybercrime -Kofi Bentil

Senior Vice President of Imani Africa, Kofi Bentil, has said that the government should be more focused on helping vulnerable banks who are prone to cybercrime rather than use the Communication Service Tax (CST) to fight cybercrime on the consumer front.

On Newsfile, a news analysis programme on JoyNews/MultiTV, he said that phishing is a major problem for banks.

“The biggest areas of cybercrime vulnerability are in our banks and in our telcos and you can’t tell me government is going to provide better cybersecurity than to [them] than they are providing for themselves,” he said.

The CST, which has been increased from 6% to 9%, has been applied to any recharge purchase by subscribers.

For every GH¢1 of recharge purchased, a 9% CST fee is charged to the subscriber leaving ¢0.93 for the purchase of products and services. Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta in the Supplementary Budget announced the 3% increase in the CST to enable the state fight cybercrime.

According to Kofi Bentil, available data shows that the biggest losses to cybercrimes in Ghana come from phishing – where cybercriminals trick unsuspecting individuals into sending out their passwords and credit card numbers.

“In other words, the government should come and tell us exactly what they are spending the money [tax] on,” he stressed on Newsfile.

Watch the video below.

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Communication Service Tax

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Kofi Bentil