Exploring Cybersecurity Awareness among Literate Mobile Money Users in Ghana

Sammanfattning

The study explores how literate Mobile Money users in Ghana understand and respond to cybersecurity risks. The focus was placed on the ways these users recognise threats and the protective measures they adopt in their daily use. A qualitative research was carried out, using semi-structured interviews with nine participants from varied backgrounds, which included students and both formal and non-formal sector workers. The Protective Motivation Theory (PMT) was used as a theoretical framework to interpret participants' threat perception and coping appraisal behaviours.The study findings show that users are aware of the prevalent threats, for instance, social engineering, agent and insider fraud and have adopted strategies such as keeping PINs private, verifying transactions and developing adaptive behaviours to protect themselves.The conclusion drawn from this research shows that although awareness exists, important gaps remain, particularly in relation to technical vulnerabilities. These results point to the need for more targeted awareness campaigns and training programs, tailored to the realities of Mobile Money use in Ghana. Future research should expand the sample and include rural settings to provide a broader understanding.