InnoFemme Hackathon at KNUST Targets Mobile Money Fraud

In Short

InnoFemme, a Ghanaian women-led non-profit, is hosting a hackathon on mobile money fraud at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) in Kumasi from Nov. 26 to 28.

About 50 young people aged 16 to 35, with at least half of them women, will work in mixed teams of coders and non-coders to build ways to stop scams.

What Happened: How InnoFemme Plans To Tackle Mobile Money Scams

InnoFemme says mobile money fraud is a fast-growing financial crime in Ghana. It points to the Bank of Ghana’s 2025 Fraud Report, which said fraud cases at payment service providers, a category that includes mobile money operators, rose 54 percent last year. The report also said the amount at risk nearly doubled to GH¢37 million.

The group says much of the fraud is social engineering, not hacking. Social engineering is when scammers trick people into handing over access, like getting someone to reveal a PIN or approve a payment themselves. Examples listed include fake prize messages, calls from people posing as telco staff, and requests to refund money supposedly sent by mistake.

The Bank of Ghana’s head of fraud investigations, Eric Cab-Beyuo, said the fraudsters work on victims’ minds, not their accounts.

The hackathon will form multidisciplinary teams, including software and AI engineering, psychology, and finance. InnoFemme says this mix helps teams keep up with social engineering tactics that are always changing.

InnoFemme also says teams are not limited to building software. They can build a tech-enabled service, a community programme, or a non-tech solution, as long as it can be demonstrated to judges.

Why It Matters

The source describes multiple ongoing responses in Ghana, including a government plan to block Ghana Cards linked to repeated mobile money fraud. It also notes the Cyber Security Authority is working with telcos on a way to hold funds once a suspicious transaction is reported.

InnoFemme positions the hackathon as part of a shared effort. The source says officials agree no single institution can solve the problem, and it cites calls for cooperation among regulators, banks, telcos, law enforcement, and the public.

The article lists four solution tracks for teams, including fraud detection and customer education.