Former MASLOC boss Sedina Tamakloe-Attionu cleared as appeal court quashes 10-year jail term

Former Microfinance and Small Loans Centre (MASLOC) Chief Executive Officer Sedina Tamakloe-Attionu has been acquitted and discharged after Ghana’s Court of Appeal overturned her 10-year prison sentence.

In a ruling delivered on Thursday, a three-member panel of the Court of Appeal held that prosecutors had failed to prove the case against her beyond reasonable doubt. The judges quashed her convictions and set aside the sentence imposed by the High Court.

The appeal challenged both her conviction and the decision to try and sentence her in absentia. Her lawyers argued that the charges were defective and that the prosecution had not produced sufficient evidence to support the offences.

Tamakloe-Attionu was extradited from the United States to Ghana on 9 June 2026 after years outside the country. She began serving her prison sentence at the Nsawam Medium Security Female Prison on 24 June.

She had travelled to the United States in 2021 with permission from the High Court to seek medical treatment while her trial was ongoing, but did not return to continue the proceedings.

In 2024, the High Court found her guilty in absentia of offences including causing financial loss to the state and stealing, over the alleged diversion and misappropriation of state funds during her tenure as head of MASLOC.

Thursday’s ruling overturns that judgment, with the Court of Appeal concluding that the prosecution had failed to establish the offences beyond reasonable doubt.