Government is collaborating with international partners to combat cyber crime organizations in the country.

Omane Boamah, Minister for Communications, who made this known at the opening ceremony of the first Ghana e-Commerce Exhibition and Conference in Accra, said the issue of online fraud presents a huge problem to the success of e-commerce in Ghana. He said the right measures were being put in place to combat, if not totally eliminate the risks posed by cyber attacks.

Dr Boamah said in promoting electronic commerce in Ghana, government had on its own commenced the introduction of a set of e-services for web content management, e-forms and Document Work Flow and developed online payments on a pilot basis as a shared service for 10 MDAs, including Passport Office, Drivers Vehicle Licenses Authority (DVLA), Ghana Tourist Authority and Criminal Investigations Department.

The rest, he said, included Ghana Police Service, Births and Deaths Registry, Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA), National Identifications Authority (NIA), National Communications Authority (NCA) and Minerals Commission.

Dr Boamah said the Controller and Accountant General’s Department had been approached to initiate procedures for opening of pool accounts for processing of visa and e-transact payments.

He said the Ghana e-Payment Platform (GEPP) had been developed as a feature-rich processing solution to be integrated with the Governments National e-Services Portal (eServices.gov.gh).

He said the Ghana e-Payment Platform supports various types of online payment methods complemented by Payall, a Ghana payment network accepting cash and cheque payments through an offline payment confirmation process.

“With an increasing popularity and geographical reach of online payments, the usage of cash and cheque payments is expected to decline and be replaced completely by online payments.

“With the relative progress in ICT development, the moment has arrived for the country to reap the benefits of technology and improve its balance of trade with the rest of the world”.

Paul Asinor, Event Director of OML Africa, said though some companies do have websites and others really offer some forms of e-Commerce in Ghana, issues of online payments, fraud and other challenges that are thrown up by such fast-paced technological change still need to be addressed.

This, he said however, does not in any way change the way business will be conducted in the very near future and Ghanaian businesses have to be the first to be counted when Africa finally breaks through the e-commerce barrier.

The first Ghana e-Commerce Exhibition and Conference, which was under the theme, “Building Ghana’s Business Online”, showcased all multi-channel and online solutions for doing secured business over the internet.