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, at least half of them women, will spend three days building ways to stop the scams.
Fraud That Targets People, Not Systems
Mobile money fraud is now one of the fastest-growing financial crimes in Ghana. According to the Bank of Ghana’s 2025 Fraud Report, fraud cases at payment service providers, the category that includes mobile money operators, rose 54 percent last year, and the amount at risk nearly doubled to GH¢37 million.
Much of this fraud is social engineering rather than hacking: fraudsters manipulate people into revealing a PIN or approving a payment themselves, using fake prize messages, calls from people posing as telco staff, or pleas to refund money supposedly sent by mistake. The Bank of Ghana’s head of fraud investigations, Eric Cab-Beyuo, said in July that the fraudsters work on their victims’ minds, not their accounts.
Ghana is responding on several fronts. The government has said it will block Ghana Cards linked to repeated mobile money fraud, and the Cyber Security Authority is working with telcos on a way to hold funds once a suspicious transaction is reported.
Officials agree that no single institution can solve the problem. In September, the authority’s director-general, Divine Selase Agbeti, called for closer cooperation among regulators, banks, telcos, law enforcement and the public. MobileMoney Fintech’s head of financial crimes has described the fight as a shared responsibility that cannot rest on operators alone. InnoFemme’s hackathon is its contribution to that shared effort.
Who Is Taking Part
Mobile money fraud is a national problem, and InnoFemme sees the response as a community one. It believes that the people closest to a problem should have a say in shaping the solutions created for them.
The hackathon will mix people from several disciplines in each team, including software and AI engineering, psychology, finance, etc. Together, they can look at the problem from different perspectives and keep up with social engineering tactics that are always changing.
Because the teams are multidisciplinary, the solutions are not limited to tech products. A team can build a tech-enabled service, a community programme or a non-tech solution, as long as it can be demonstrated to the judges.
There are four solution tracks for teams to choose from: fraud detection, customer education, stopping fraud at the moment of payment, and community warnings.
How It Runs
Preparation starts the week before the event with a five-day online bootcamp, delivered with InnoFemme’s learning partner, the 100 Million Learners Program at Arizona State University’s Thunderbird School of Global Management.
The hackathon itself opens on Nov. 26 with a public session at KNUST, expected to draw 300 to 500 people. The opening conversations will include former fraudsters who have since left the trade and can explain how the scams are run.
Over the next two days, selected teams will build and test their solutions, then present them to a panel of judges.
Who Is Backing It
The event is organised with the KNUST Engineering Education Project (KEEP) and the KNUST College of Engineering Innovation Centre. Partners include the GSMA, the Data Protection Commission, CapitalPlus Exchange, law firm Gyan, Sam & Opoku, Developers in Vogue, MTN MoMo, Mac Bennett Hotel and Didi Foods. Tech Labari is the media partner.
The End Goal
InnoFemme hopes telcos, banks and fintechs will pick up and test the strongest ideas after the event, so that fewer people in Ghana lose their money to a convincing call or message.
How to Get Involved
Young people interested in taking part can find out more at hack.innofemme.org/apply.
Organisations interested in sponsoring the event or piloting solutions can email [email protected].
More about the hackathon is at hack.innofemme.org, and more about InnoFemme at innofemme.org.
