Gifty Oware-Mensah
The Office of the Attorney General will be calling its first witness on January 22, 2026 in the trial of former Executive Deputy Director of the National Service Authority (NSA), Gifty Oware-Mensah, accused of stealing and causing financial loss of GH¢38.4 million to the state.
This follows the completion of case management conference and the filing of all disclosures the prosecution intends to rely on for their case. The Office of the Attorney General is hoping to close its case by end of February this year.
In the meantime, Mrs. Oware-Mensah is expected back in court on January 20, 2026, for her plea to be retaken as the prosecution has indicated its intention to amend the charge sheet.
Gifty Oware-Mensah has been dragged to court for allegedly causing financial loss of GH¢6,956,157.47 by causing the state to pay the said amount as interest to the Agricultural Development Bank (ADB) on a GH¢31,502,091.40 loan inappropriately authorised for Blocks of Life Consult, which she benefitted from.
She has also been accused of stealing and laundering GH¢31,502,091.40 by transferring it from the NSA higher-purchase escrow account with ADB to Blocks of Life Consult “for the purpose of disguising the illicit origin of the money, knowing it to be proceeds of crime.”
She pleaded not guilty to all the five charges read out by the court clerk and was granted a bail of GH¢10 million with three sureties, two of whom must be justified with landed property within Accra.
The sureties are to deposit a copy of their Ghana Card with the registrar, while the accused was ordered to deposit her passport(s) with the registrar. She was also placed on the Stop List at all entry points of the country.
Brief Facts
The prosecution alleges that between February 2022 and March 2024, Gifty Oware-Mensah allegedly approached officials of ADB and informed them that the NSA had signed an agreement with her company, Blocks of Life Consult (BLC), to sell products on hire-purchase to national service personnel.
“She claimed that she required a loan of GH¢78,139,910.00 to support her business,” the facts said.
The accused, in October 2022, wrote to the bank and submitted a list of approximately 9,934 ghost names that she generated from the NSA Central Management System, claiming she had supplied goods on hire-purchase to the personnel and wanted to use their allowances as collateral for the facility.
ADB, however, told her that they could not approve the loan of GH¢78,139,910.00 as it would mean they would be deducting the full allowances of the supposed personnel.
She later agreed with the bank on the principal sum of GH¢31,502,091.40 and an interest of GH¢6,956,157.47 to be paid through source deductions of the 9,934 personnel allowance over 11 months.
An escrow account was established with ADB to retain the loan on behalf of the NSA, and the loan amount of GH¢31,502,091.40 was disbursed into the account.
It was subsequently transferred into Blocks of Life Consult on Mrs. Oware-Mensah’s instruction, out of which she allegedly transferred GH¢22,925,518.69 to Amaecom Global Company, of which she was a director, and the remaining amount to three other companies.
BY Gibril Abdul Razak
