Attorney-General discovers criminal enterprise at NSA costing Ghana over GH¢548m in stolen cash – Ghana Business News
The Attorney-General has announced the discovery of a criminal enterprise at the National Service Authority (NSA) that has cost the country more than GH¢548 million.
Addressing the media today June 13, 2025 in Accra, Dr Dominic Ayine said following the investigative work done by the Fourth Estate publication, the Attorney-General’s Department conducted four months of investigations into the activities of the NSA.
Dr Ayine said in or around February 2022, the management of the NSA announced the introduction of a digitalization system which they claimed had saved the country some GH¢112 million.
“Through an app known as the Metric App which allegedly combines facial recognition technology and identity card checks for verification and validation, the NSA had blocked the enrolment of some 14,027 potential fraudsters on to the scheme for the 2021-2022 service year.
Despite these claims, when our current Minister of Finance, the Honourable Cassiel Ato Forson, ordered a head count of all national service personnel as a precondition for the disbursement of arears of allowances payable to the personnel dating back to August 2024, it was discovered that around 81,885 were ghost names,” he said.
The Attorney-General pointed out their investigations revealed a sprawling criminal enterprise whose network covers the entire country.
“This criminal enterprise was run by top-level executives of the NSA and their accomplices in the private sector known as vendors or service providers. This criminal enterprise resulted in the siphoning
of huge sums of public funds into private pockets,” he said, adding, “in total, we can confirm that a whopping GH¢548,333,542.65 has been lost to the state through this criminal enterprise.”
He explained that the total amount was stolen in a six-year period, indicating that the criminal enterprise that resulted in the loss of this colossal sum of money to the state involved the creation of ghost names within the NSA payroll system by some directors and staff, which they subsequently exploited to misappropriate state funds for their personal gain.
This criminal enterprise resulted in the siphoning of huge sums of public funds into private pockets. In total, we can confirm that a whopping GH¢548,333,542.65 has been lost to the state through this criminal enterprise.
“This they did in direct collaboration with vendors and other accomplices,” he said.
He gave the following breakdown. In the 2018/2019 service year GH¢25,857,836.16 was misappropriated. GH¢21,613,962.24 was lost in the 2019/2020 service year, in the 2020/2021 service year, and amount of GH¢55,670,584.32 was lost. In 2021/2022, GH¢61,383,025.74, and GH¢350,926,977.12 was lost in the 2022/2023 service year, while in the 2023/2024 service year, GH¢32,881,157.07, bringing the total to GH¢ GH¢548,333,542.65.
The Attorney-General said their further investigations found that, prior to the commencement of each new
service year, the directors would submit to Parliament for approval a budget figure representing the number of prospective service personnel for that service year. Consistently, these figures were inflated by huge numbers, he said.
He also said during the fiscal year, the directors would write to the Minister of Finance requesting permission to utilize excess funds allocated in the budget of the NSA.
“Once authorized, the directors would transfer the funds into the NSA’s project account at the Agricultural Development Bank (ADB) and under the pretext of executing their projects, would divert the funds into private pockets,” he said.
According to Dr Ayine, another criminal scheme hatched and exploited by the directors and staff is the deployment of ghost names on to the NSA system. Once deployed, the directors would then request that both ghost names and genuine names be transmitted by the Head of Accounts to the Ghana Interbank Payment and Settlement Systems (GHIPSS) for payment. These payments included payments to E-Zwich
cards procured for the fictitious national service personnel.
“Our investigations compared monthly data of verified national service personnel generated from the central management system and submitted to the NSA accounts office and the data of NSA personnel who were actually paid through the GHIPSS system for a period of six years (2018-2024). It was established that a total of 587,543 personnel were to be submitted to GHIPSS for payment of allowances.
Meanwhile, data from GHIPSS showed that a total of 650,165 personnel were paid,
indicating that 63,672 constituted ghost names,” he said.
He listed the following as categories of personnel captured on the payroll:
• NSPS who were blocked on the CMS during the registration process;
• NSP numbers that exist in the payment records but do not exist on the CMS;
• NSA v o l u n t e e r s;
• NSA management/staff and market place vendors.
He disclosed that their investigations additionally established that some of the ghost names were added to the lists submitted by the vendors, representing the number of service personnel to whom they had supplied items or provided loan facilities. When these vendors eventually received payments, the directors and staff would then contact the vendors whose accounts had received payments, meet with them, and collect the additional money that had been added to the vendors’ payments.
The Attorney-General said they have conclusively established that, after collecting these funds, some of the suspects, such as Gaisie, Nyarko, and Oteng handed them over to suspect Osei Assibey Antwi in cash and on some occasions deposited the cash into his bank account.
He also said some directors, such a s Gifty Oware-Mensah, created and executed a meticulously detailed plan, using NSP allowances as security to obtain a loan of GH¢30.6 million (GH¢30,698,218.69) from the Agricultural Development Bank (ADB) at an interest rate of 23%.
“She achieved these results by using other people’s information to register a company called Blocks of Life Consult without their knowledge or permission. Subsequently, she presented Blocks of Life Consult through a middleman in the person of Maxwell Akwesi Ofori-Mintah to an official of the ADB, enlisting her husband, Peter Mensah, a lawyer, to act as one of the directors/representatives of the said company.
She told ADB that the company specialised in supplying home appliances to National Service personnel and proposed that ADB finance the company to enable it to supply these items on hire purchase to the service personnel, with the NSA being responsible for handling the deductions and repayments,” he said.
The Attorney-General noted that during that period, suspect Gifty was the acting director of the Authority. However, on the marketplace of the Authority, there was no indication that “Blocks of Life” was a registered vendor.
He said within two service years (2022-2023 and 2023- 2024), suspect Gifty Oware-Mensah used a total of 9,934 ghost names to misappropriate the aforementioned funds.
“Investigation further established that, after ADB transferred the funds into the account of the company, she subsequently transferred the funds into four different company accounts with the names as follows: AMEACOM, Scafold, Otchey, and Aristo Logistics and Trading. It was further established that suspect Gifty is a director of AMAECOM and Scaffold Company Limited belongs to suspect Abraham
Gaisie. That, between 3rd March 2023 and 24th May 2024, suspect Gifty transferred GH¢22.9 million (GH¢22,925,518.69) to AMAECOM, GH¢1,000,000.00 to Scafold, GH¢1,572,700.00 to Otchey, and GH¢5,200,000.00) to Aristo Logistics and Trading..” he said.
The Attorney-General stated that investigation however established that Eric Nyarko (from 2017 until April 2024,) and Iddrisu ibn Abu-Bakar (April 2024 to December 2024) were responsible for preparing and transmitting NSP payroll data to GHIPPS for payment of allowances with the approval of the former NSA Director-Generals; Mustapha Ussif (2017- February 2021), Gifty Oware Aboagye (acting February, 2021-September, 2021) and Osei Assibey Antwi September, 2021 to January, 2025).
“Without their explicit authority nothing was possible,” he said.
Furthermore, investigation revealed that national service volunteers received payments from funds intended for NSP allowances between 2018 and 2024, he said.
He also said, in the 2022/2023 service year, a total of GH¢8,256,000.00 was deposited into EZWICH
account number 1177042059, which is registered in the name of suspect Osei Assibey. Investigations showed that he personally received these funds, the Attorney-General said.
“During a search at his residence, the aforementioned Ezwich card was found,” he said.
According to the Attorney-General, investigations further revealed that another suspect, Haruna Mawulaya of Al-Fayda Ventures, a vendor, received a total payment of GH¢21,306,272.43 into
his account from 2017 to 2024. Suspect Rose Hamilton, of Marine Ventures, received a total payment of GH¢50,754,923.15 into her account from 2017 to 2024. Suspect Isaac Asamani, of Option Buy Ventures, received a total payment of GH¢11,458,686.90 into his account from 2017 to 2024, a total payment of GH¢167,554,398.54 was made into the account from of a savings and loan entity between 2019 and 2024.
Listing additional suspects, he said suspect Sylvia Ntriwa Opare, of Sylsona Ventures, received a total payment of GH¢10,746,634.41 into her account from 2021 to 2024. Suspect Jacob Yawson, of Nyansapo Ventures, received a total payment of GH¢19,199,638.57 into his account from 2021 to 024. suspects Philomina Arthur and Stephen Kwabena Gyamfi, of Brainwave Ventures, received a total payment of GH¢17,646,523.80 into their account from 2021 to 2024. Suspect Solomon Damena, of Alfarita Ventures, received a total payment of GH¢8,236,019.67 into his account from 2021 to 2024.
Suspect Charles Ohemeng, of CH OHEC Ventures, received a total payment of GH¢14,235,118.14 into his account from 2022 to 2024. Suspects Kwaku Opare Agbofa and Prince Agbofa Awuku, of Fralisa Ventures, received a total payment of GH¢9,011,164.35 into their accounts from 2023 to 2024.
“However, none of the aforementioned vendors provided evidence to prove that the amounts of money they received corresponded to the items supplied or loans supposedly made to National Service Personnel,” Dr Ayine indicated.
The Attorney-General indicated that they have concluded investigations and will be filing charges against twelve suspects who worked as directors and staff of the NSA. They will also file charges against some vendors.
“These are Mustapha Ussif, a former executive director, Osei Assibey Antwi, former Director General, Gifty Oware-Mensah former deputy executive director, Kweku Ohene Gyan, former deputy executive director for operations, Abraham Bismark Gaisie, head of deployment, Eric Nyarko, former head of accounts, Albert Oteng Owusu, former internal auditor, Kweku Dekyi Agyei, an accounts officer, Iddrisu Ibn Abu-Bakr, former head of accounts, Stephen Kwabena Gyamfi, Koforidua Municipal
Director, Prince Agbofa Awuku, a district director a n d Jacob Yawson, Management Information Systems Administrator in the Northern Regional Office,” he said.
He said charges will be filed against the following persons who are vendors on the marketplace on the Central Management System of the NSA in the Eastern, Greater Accra and Ashanti Regions: Isaac Osae Asamani, the owner of Stalwart/Option Buy ventures. Charles Ohemeng, the owner of CH OHEC ventures. Philomina Arthur, the owner of Brainwave ventures. Rose Hamilton, the owner of Marine ventures. Kwaku Opare Agbofa, the owner of Franlisa ventures. Solomon Dwamena, the owner of Alfarita ventures. Haruna Mawulaya, the owner of Alfayda Enterprise. Sylvia Ntriwa Opare, the owner of Sylsona ventures, Peter Mensah, a legal practitioner and the husband of Gifty Oware-Mensah.
The Attorney-General also said this office has made the decision to enter into non-prosecution agreements (NPAs), with certain vendors who have agreed to provide compelling testimonies as witnesses for the prosecution.
In that regard, he said they have agreed not to disclose their names.
He then listed the charges the suspects will face in Court.
“Having provided this factual background, our position is clear that these persons are reasonably suspected to have committed crimes and shall be charged accordingly with the following crimes:
• Stealing, contrary to section 124(1) of the Criminal Offences Act, 1960,
(Act 29).
• Conspiracy to steal contrary to sections 23(1) and 124(1) of the Criminal
Offences Act, 1960, (Act 29).
• Willfully Causing Financial Loss to the State, contrary to section
179A(3)(a) of the Criminal Offences Act, 1960, (Act 29).
• Using Public Office for Profit contrary to section 179C(a) of the Criminal
Offences Act, 1960, (Act 29).
• Obtaining public property by false statements, contrary to Section 5 of the
Public Property Protection Act, 1977 (SMCD 140).
• Money laundering contrary to Section 1(2)(c) of the Anti-Money
Laundering Act, 2020 (Act 1044).
• Conspiracy to commit money laundering contrary to Section 3 of the Anti-
Money Laundering Act, 2020 (Act 1044)” he said.
He concluded by saying that as part of the ORAL agenda, he has ordered that a comprehensive investigation of the assets owned by these persons be conducted.
“That investigation is ongoing, and we shall be pursuing the suspects to retrieve funds attributable to them and assets they have acquired using those funds,” he said.
By Emmanuel k Dogbevi
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