PCSRC joins MoCD to remove e-commerce fraud
The Postal and Courier Services Regulatory Commission (PCSRC), a regulatory agency of the Ministry of Communications and Digitalisation (MoCD), has taken note to remove fraudulent actions of some e-commerce, e-logistics, and digital trading in the country.
The Ministry of Communications and Digitalisation (MoCD) and its agencies have been aware of these problems for some time now and are taking important steps to address them, such as the SIM registration process that is still ongoing.
The Postal and Courier Services Regulatory Commission (PCSRC), on behalf of the MoCD, would like to inform “the public of its upcoming program to register all e-commerce, e-logistics, and digital trading operators to provide them with a secure online profile at no cost”.
“A free-to-use electronic portal has already been developed to enable all members of the public to obtain directory information on all registered e-commerce traders and e-logistics companies (including courier services) in good standing with the PCSRC before doing business with them”.
“This system will be integrated with telecom and corporate registries to close existing loopholes. And also, complaints and business rating systems will be centralised so that fraudulent persons and sham businesses no longer hide behind the current anonymity provided by digital technology to dupe unsuspecting members of the public” PCSRC stated.
According to the PCSRC, anybody who tries to take any bad actions will be blacklisted. “This is absolutely necessary to sanitise this rapidly growing sector and provide security for the conduct of genuine online business. All of these efforts are in line with the Government of Ghana’s Digitalisation Agenda”.
“The ongoing trade liberalisation regime under the AfCFTA and ECOWAS, have complicated domestic regulations since businesses can now trade across national borders using the internet. Fraudulent operatives take advantage of this to evade local law enforcement authorities by sometimes operating from neighbouring countries”.
According to PCSRC, they have joined the AfCFTA Hub and Caravan initiatives and have successfully integrated its aforementioned regulatory platform with the continental system. “We shall go forward, work together with other agencies in the country and across the region to tighten the noose around digital fraudsters regardless of where they operate from” PCSRC stated.
