One and the same person declaration: a template for Ghana

Your birth certificate says Kwabena, your Ghana Card says Kwabina, and your bank has Kwabena K. Mensah. Nothing is wrong with you, but every institution that sees two of those documents side by side will stop and ask.

The fix is a statutory declaration that all of the names refer to one person - the commonest declaration sworn in Ghana. This is the template.

The template

                 REPUBLIC OF GHANA

               STATUTORY DECLARATION

I, ___________________________________________
[full name, exactly as on your Ghana Card]

of ___________________________________________
   ___________________________________________
[house number, street and town]

Digital address:   ___________________________
Ghana Card No:     GHA-___________________-___
Occupation:        ___________________________

a citizen of Ghana, do solemnly and sincerely
declare as follows:

1.  That I am the declarant herein.

2.  That my correct name is
    ___________________________________________
    as it appears on my Ghana Card.

3.  That I am also named in some of my documents
    as follows:

    (a) _______________________________________
        on my ______________________________
        [document, its number and date]

    (b) _______________________________________
        on my ______________________________

    (c) _______________________________________
        on my ______________________________

4.  That the names in paragraphs 2 and 3 above
    all refer to one and the same person,
    namely myself.

5.  That I make this declaration for the purpose
    of ________________________________________
    and for all other lawful purposes.

AND I make this solemn declaration conscientiously
believing the same to be true, and by virtue of
the Statutory Declarations Act, 1971 (Act 389).

DECLARED at ___________________________
this ______ day of ____________________ 20____


                     _____________________________
                     DECLARANT


BEFORE ME


_____________________________
COMMISSIONER FOR OATHS

Filling it in

Paragraph 2 is the name you will use from now on. Pick one spelling and use it everywhere from the day you swear this. The Ghana Card is the sensible choice, because everything else is checked against it.

List every variation in paragraph 3, on every document, with the document’s number and date. One declaration covering four documents is better than four declarations - add lines if you need them, and delete any you do not use.

Paragraph 5 names what you need it for - “opening an account at my bank”, “my passport application”, “my SSNIT records”. The words “and for all other lawful purposes” let you use the same declaration again.

Do not explain the mistake. “The Registry spelled it wrongly” is an argument, not a fact you can swear to. The declaration only has to say the names belong to one person.

Layout. This is the form most Commissioners for Oaths in Accra will recognise: your details at the top, numbered statements of fact, and the closing line that you make it believing it to be true. Some registries and law offices prefer their own layout and will retype it, which is fine - the facts are what you are bringing.

Lying in one is an offence. That is what gives a declaration its weight: you are not proving the facts, you are accepting the consequences if they are false. Say only what you know, and where something comes from somebody else, say so.

What it does not do

It explains the difference to whoever is asking. It does not correct your birth certificate or any other record - that is a separate application to the office that issued it. Abroad, it needs authenticating before an embassy or a foreign university will look at it.

Changing or correcting your name How to swear the declaration Authenticating documents for use abroad