The Attorney General has announced the filing of charges against 12 individuals implicated in what he described as a “sprawling criminal enterprise” within the National Service Authority (NSA), resulting in the loss of over GHS 548 million to the state between 2018 and 2024.
At a press briefing held earlier today, the Attorney General offered an in-depth overview of the findings following months of investigations led by the National Intelligence Bureau (NIB).
“In my last press briefing held on March 24th, 2025, I made clear that investigations into the National Service scandal were almost concluded, and that I will return with a detailed update on the investigations and the decision of my office regarding criminal charges against all persons suspected to have been involved in the looting of state resources,” he began.
Digital Verification Efforts Exposed Deeper Corruption
“I am here today, ladies and gentlemen, my fellow countrymen and women, to announce that I have received the dockets compiled by diligent and hardworking investigators at the National Intelligence Bureau, popularly known as NIB, formerly BNI.”
According to the Attorney General, the investigative dockets were prepared under strict oversight by his office and supervised by the Deputy Attorney General, Hon. Dr. Joseph Simsai. He traced the genesis of the fraud back to early 2022, when the NSA introduced a digital verification system, claiming to have blocked over 14,000 fake entries and saved more than GHS 112 million.
“Ladies and gentlemen, in or around February 2022, the management of the National Service Authority announced the introduction of a digitalization system which they claimed had saved the country some 112 million Ghana cedis,” he said.
“Through an app known as the Metric App… the NSA had blocked the enrollment of some 14,027 potential fraudsters on the scheme for the 2021/2022 service year.”
However, a headcount audit commissioned in 2024 by the Finance Minister, Dr. Cassiel Ato Forson, ahead of the release of personnel allowance arrears, revealed an alarming figure of 81,885 ghost names on the payroll. The discovery, the Attorney General said, pointed to deep-rooted corruption orchestrated by high-ranking NSA officials in collaboration with private vendors.
“Our investigations have revealed a sprawling criminal enterprise whose network covers the entire country,” he disclosed.
“This criminal enterprise was run by top-level executives of the National Service Authority and their accomplices in the private sector, known as vendors or service providers… resulting in the siphoning of huge sums of public funds into private pockets.”
Providing a breakdown of the losses across different service years, the Attorney General confirmed the following amounts: GHS 55,670,584.32 in 2020/2021, GHS 350,926,977.12 in 2022/2023, GHS 32,881,157.07 in 2023/2024.
Inflated Budgets and Diverted Public Funds
He noted that the 2022/2023 losses were “more surprising and very shocking,” emphasizing the scale of manipulation within the system.
“In total, as I stated, we lost over 548 million Ghana cedis to the criminal enterprise perpetrated by these executives, these directors and staff, as well as the service providers in the marketplace.”
The fraudulent activities, he said, centered around the creation and deployment of ghost names on the NSA’s payroll. Directors and staff allegedly inflated budget proposals to Parliament, then sought authorization from the Finance Ministry to spend excess funds. Once approved, the money was moved into NSA’s project accounts and later diverted into private hands.
“Once authorized, the directors would transfer the funds into NSA’s project account at the Agriculture Development Bank, and under the pretext of executing projects, would divert the funds into private pockets.”
He also provided a detailed account of financial transactions and named additional suspects in the ongoing investigation into widespread fraud within the National Service Scheme. He revealed that;
“In the 2022, 2023 service year, a total of 8,256,000 Ghana Cedis was deposited into an E-Zwich account numbered 1177042059, which is registered in the name of suspect Osei Asibe.”
According to the Attorney General, “investigations show that he personally received these funds,” and during a search of his residence, “the aforementioned E-Zwich card was found,” which will be used as evidence.
The briefing detailed transactions involving other vendors as well: Haruna Maulaya of Alfajra Ventures received 21,306,272.43 Cedis, Rose Hamilton of Marine Ventures received 50,750,923.15 Cedis, and Isaac Asamani of Option Buy Ventures received 11,458,686.90 Cedis, all between 2017 and 2024. A savings and loan company also received 167,554,398.50 Cedis between 2019 and 2024.
The Attorney General continued: “Suspect Sylvia Opare of Salesona Ventures received a total payment of 10,746,634.41 Ghana Cedis into her account from 2021 to 2024,” while Jacob Yawson of Nyansampo Ventures received 19,199,638.57 Cedis.
Others named include Philomena Atta and Steven Korben Argyemfi of BrainWay Ventures (17,646,523.80 Cedis), Solomon Jomina of Alfarita Ventures (8,000,019.67 Cedis), Charles Ohomene Ahemeng of GH High tech Ventures (14,235,118.14 Cedis), and Koku Opare Agofa and Prince Agofa Awooku of Fralisa Ventures (9,011,164.35 Cedis). The Attorney General stated clearly, “none of the aforementioned vendors provided evidence to the investigative team or to myself to prove that the amounts of money they received corresponded to the items supplied or the loans supposedly made to the National Service personnel.”
Charges will also be filed against 12 former staff and directors of the NSA, including Mustafa Yussuf, Osei Asiamanee, Gifty Oware-Mensah, Kweku Ohenejan, and others. Additionally, several vendors operating under the NSA’s central management system will face prosecution, such as Isaac Osei Asare-Amsamoah of Stalwart Option Buy Ventures, Charles Ohomening of GH High Tech Ventures, and Rose Hamilton of Marine Ventures.
The Attorney General noted that some individuals entered into non-prosecution agreements in exchange for testimony: “These have agreed to provide compelling testimonies as witnesses for the prosecution.”
He outlined the charges to be filed, including stealing, conspiracy to steal, willfully causing financial loss to the state, use of public office for profit, false statements to obtain public property, and money laundering. “I have ordered that a comprehensive investigation of the assets of these persons be conducted,” he concluded, affirming the state’s resolve to retrieve misappropriated funds and assets.
