Government urged to implement social programmes to reduce “Sakawa”

Accra, Oct. 6, GNA – A PhD student researcher has called on the government to introduce social intervention programmes aimed at harnessing the youthful human capital base to reduce incidence of cyber crime popularly referred to as “Sakawa.”

Mr. Ezer Yeboah-Boateng at the Centre for Communication, Media and Information Technology, Aalborg University, Denmark (AUD), who made the call at a day’s seminar in Accra on Wednesday, said more research needed to be conducted to utilize the employable skills of patrons of cyber crime for national development.

The seminar, which was organized by the Ghana Telecom University College (GTUC) and AUD, was on the theme: “Cyber-Crime: The Mindset of Sakawa Patrons.”

It was to outline the underlying factors that influenced the mindset of perpetrators of the menace and difficulties associated with cyber crime cross border investigations and prosecution.

Mr Yeboah-Boateng described “Sakawa” as a form of cyber crime that involved mainly identity deception, in some cases identity theft, and other aspects of social engineering.

Presenting his research findings on selected internet cafes and some patrons of cyber crimes in Accra, he said, 75 per cent of the respondents admitted that the key motive for engaging in the menace was money.

Mr Yeboah-Boateng said 95 per cent of the patrons disclosed they had succeeded in the trade at least once, whilst only two per cent said they had never been successful.

“Seventy-nine per cent indicated that they would never continue with the trade if they were given appropriate stipend, whilst six per cent indicated they may continue, and only three per cent said they would continue in spite of a stipend,” he said.

Speaking on the background of the respondents, he said, 86 per cent were under 29 years and 21 per cent were teenagers with one per cent being over 40 years.

Mr Yeboah-Boateng said 90 per cent of the patrons admitted they had little or no difficulty cheating, with only five per cent finding it difficult to be dishonest.

“Fifty-five per cent had used drugs at least once, 31 per cent had used drugs often or very often, with only four per cent having not tried drugs ever,” he said.

He said 46 per cent had no family support whilst 49 per cent had inadequate family support.

Mr Yeboah-Boateng added that 75 per cent of the respondents felt insecure with 34 per cent having no friends at all.

Dr. Robert Awuah Baffour, Vice President of GTUC expressed worry that law enforcement agencies and their personnel lacked capacity to track perpetrators of cyber crime in the country.

“If you enter into any charge office of the Police Station, there is not even a single computer for record keeping. All that you can see is heaps of books and pieces of papers,” he said.

He said he was hopeful that the participants, drawn from Ministries, Departments and Agencies, security services, regulatory agencies and stakeholders in the Information, Communication and Technology (ICT) sector would discuss ways of reducing incidence of cyber crime in the country.

Dr Osei Kofi Darkwa, President of the GTUC, underscored the importance of capacity building activities to enable the security services to clamp down on activities of cyber criminals.

He said GTUC has a centre for ethical hacking, where experts from North America visited the University to facilitate the training of participants to “get the mindset of cyber crime perpetrators” and how to outwit them.

Dr Darkwa pledged the commitment of his University to create alliances to bridge the gaps with industries, security agencies and stakeholders to move Ghana to the next level.