On 17th November 2023, a team from the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) led by their Regional Director for West and Central Africa, Dr. Amado De Andres paid a courtesy call to the Executive Director of the Economic and Organised Crime Office (EOCO) COP Maame Yaa Tiwaa Addo-Danquah and her management team.

The purpose of the meeting was to strengthen existing ties between the two institutions and to discuss program opportunities in the fight against money laundering, corruption, and other organized crimes in Ghana.

The Executive Director noted in her opening remarks that EOCO has benefited immensely from the UNODC. She added that the support had however dwindled post-COVID until recently when EOCO benefited from a series of training in the area of Cyber Crime. This was followed by the donation of some cutting-edge digital forensic equipment to boost the digital forensic capabilities of EOCO and some other law enforcement agencies in Ghana. She was therefore elated to have UNODC on board again.

Dr. Amado De Andre praised Ghana for being a champion for many reasons, which makes it easy for UNODC to want to continue to collaborate. He added that the UNODC would also want to strengthen law enforcement institutions in Ghana in the area of asset recovery and help position the country to be a formidable force in the fight against illicit financial flows.

COP Maame Yaa Tiwaa informed the delegation of EOCO’s role as the lead in the recovery and asset management charge for all law enforcement agencies in Ghana. She added that the UNODC could extend its support for EOCO, being a pioneering agency, in that area.

Mr. Cheikh Toure – UNODC Regional Law Enforcement Advisor and member of the delegation emphasized the importance of strengthening the confiscation, forfeiture, seizure, and asset recovery regimes because criminals have found very creative means of hiding their ill-gotten wealth.
He also stressed the importance of introducing an integrated database of all law enforcement and partner institutions in Ghana to cover the gaps that the criminals take advantage of to ply their trade.

COP Maame Yaa Tiwaa Addo-Danquah concurred with Mr. Cheikh Toure adding that the ability to keep data of all suspects in a unified national database by law enforcement agencies would be very beneficial since it would make it easy to identify criminals who have engaged in further criminal activities and to notice emerging trends.

SOURCEBarima Nana Arkoh- Frempong
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Ghana, Accra, Mankessim. Ishmael Awudi is a journalist and a media entrepreneur. He founded Ghana News Guide. GNG is an online news platform that focuses on news stories within Ghana and across the world on a regular basis. The primary objective of GNG is to ensure that news stories are reported as they are, with no filters applied. In its news coverage, GNG strives for professionalism.He also founded Wetour, a local tourism agency aimed at boosting the tourism space in Ghana with the youth at focus.Ishmael works with The Afriam Network as the head of business development. Afriam Network is a global company based in Ghana, Accra that offers a variety of services such as Customer Service, Debt Collection, Order Taking, Lead Generation, Customer Surveys, and Telesales. Ishmael holds a bachelor's degree from the Ghana Institute of Journalism. He won the best online media personality award in 2019 at level 300.He has contributed to several media houses in Ghana including.

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