Glossary

A

abanTwi

The government, the state. Usually said with a sigh, and usually about something that has not been fixed.

akwaabaTwi

Welcome. The first word most visitors to Ghana hear, said constantly and mostly meant.

allocation noteGhanaian English

A document from a chief or family indicating an allocation of customary land. It is a step toward title, and it is not title.

AyaloloGa

Accra's bus rapid transit service - scheduled buses with proper stops and a fare card, on dedicated routes. Comfortable where it goes.

B

bankuGa

A smooth, slightly sour dough of fermented corn and cassava, most famously served with grilled tilapia and hot pepper.

BECEacronym

The exam at the end of junior high school. Your aggregate decides which senior high school you are placed in, which in Ghana matters a great deal.

bolaGa

Rubbish, waste. Kaya bola are the informal collectors who take your household waste away for a small fee.

Boys quartersGhanaian English

A small separate living unit within the compound of a larger house, originally built as staff accommodation. Often good value and self-contained.

C

chaleGhanaian Pidgin

Friend, mate, buddy. The most useful and most used word in Ghanaian Pidgin - it opens sentences, closes them, and fills every pause.

Chale WoteGhanaian Pidgin

The street art festival held in Jamestown each August - art, performance, music and fashion taking over the streets of old Accra.

Chamber and hallGhanaian English

The most common rental unit in Accra: one bedroom (the chamber) and one living room (the hall), with facilities either private or shared.

chop barGhanaian English

The local Ghanaian restaurant: a shed, plastic chairs, a few dishes, and a cook who has been making one of them for thirty years.

chop moneyGhanaian English

Money given for household food and daily expenses. A real and negotiated part of many Ghanaian household arrangements.

compound houseGhanaian English

A house where several households live in separate rooms around a shared central yard, sharing bathroom, kitchen and washing space.

D

Detty DecemberGhanaian Pidgin

The December season of concerts, parties and diaspora homecoming that takes over Accra, roughly from mid-December to the new year.

droppingGhanaian English

Taking a taxi direct to your destination rather than sharing it. You negotiate the fare before getting in, because taxis have no meters.

dumsorTwi

From the Akan for off (dum) and on (so) - the rolling power cuts that have come and gone in waves in Ghana for decades.

DVLAacronym

Ghana's licensing authority. It issues driving licences, registers vehicles and inspects them for roadworthy certificates.

E

E-Levyacronym

A tax on mobile money transfers introduced in 2022 and repealed in April 2025. If a guide still describes it as current, that guide is out of date.

ECGacronym

The state electricity distributor for southern Ghana. Its prepaid meters, and the credit that runs out at 2am, are a fixture of Accra life.

ɛte sɛnTwi

How are you, in Twi. The standard reply is bɔkɔɔ - fine, or cool. Greeting before you speak is not optional in Ghana.

F

fufuTwi

Cassava and plantain pounded into a smooth elastic dough, eaten in soup. You do not chew it - you swallow.

G

gariEwe

Grated, fermented, dried cassava granules. Sprinkled on waakye, soaked in water as a drink, or cooked into gari fortor.

Ghana Cardacronym

Ghana's national identity card, issued by the NIA. Its PIN doubles as your tax number, and almost nothing official happens without it.

GhanaPostGPSacronym

Ghana's national digital addressing system. Every five-metre square has a code like GA-183-4567, which is what forms and couriers actually want.

GIPCacronym

The agency that registers foreign investment and sets the minimum capital a foreign-owned company must bring into Ghana.

GISacronym

The agency that controls entry to Ghana and issues residence and work permits. You will deal with them for anything beyond your entry stamp.

goro boysGhanaian English

Unofficial fixers who hang around government offices offering to speed up your paperwork for a fee. Using them is a bad idea.

GRAacronym

Ghana's tax authority. It collects income tax, VAT, customs duties and withholding tax, and it is who you file with.

H

harmattanGhanaian English

The dry, dust-laden wind that blows down from the Sahara roughly December to February. It hazes the sky, cracks your skin, and cools the nights.

HomowoGa

The Ga festival of Accra, meaning hooting at hunger. It commemorates surviving a famine, and is marked by sprinkling kpokpoi through the streets.

I

indentureGhanaian English

The document conveying an interest in land in Ghana. Necessary but not sufficient - it is not the same as registered title.

J

jollofGhanaian English

Rice cooked in a tomato and pepper base. The subject of a long-running and entirely sincere rivalry between Ghana and Nigeria.

K

KantamantoGhanaian English

The enormous second-hand clothing market in Accra Central, and one of the largest in the world. Where much of the Global North's discarded clothing ends up.

kayayeiGa

The women and girls who carry goods on their heads for a fee in Accra's markets, most of them migrants from northern Ghana.

keleweleTwi

Ripe plantain cubed and fried with ginger, chilli and spice. Sold from roadside stands in the evening, and impossible to stop eating.

kenkeyGa

Fermented corn dough steamed in husks. Sour, dense and filling, served with pepper and fried fish. Ga kenkey and Fante kenkey differ.

knockingGhanaian English

Kokooko - the formal visit by a man's family to a woman's family to ask permission to marry, bringing drinks and gifts.

L

land guardGhanaian English

Armed groups who take physical possession of a plot and demand payment before you can develop it. A criminal offence, and a real risk.

lorry stationGhanaian English

The terminals trotros and buses run between, organised by destination. Circle, Kaneshie, Madina, Tema Station and Lapaz are the big Accra ones.

M

mateGhanaian English

The conductor on a trotro. Hangs out of the door calling the destination, collects fares, gives change, and decides when the bus is full.

medaaseTwi

Thank you, in Twi. Medaase paa is thank you very much. One of the highest-value words you can learn in Accra.

MelcomGhanaian English

Ghana's largest department store chain, and the default place to buy household goods, appliances and school supplies at fixed prices.

MoMoGhanaian English

Mobile money - the payment system Ghana actually runs on. Rent, salaries, market traders and trotro fares all move over it.

N

NHILacronym

A 2.5% levy on most goods and services that funds the NHIS. It is charged before VAT, which is part of why the effective VAT rate is so high.

NHISacronym

Ghana's public health insurance. Cheap to join, broad in coverage, and it takes 90 days to activate - so register before you need it.

NIAacronym

The agency that issues the Ghana Card. Where you go to register, and where you follow up when the card does not arrive.

O

obroniTwi

A white or foreign person. Usually neutral or affectionate rather than hostile, and children will shout it at you cheerfully.

okadaGhanaian English

A commercial motorcycle taxi. Fastest way through Accra traffic, technically illegal, and the most dangerous way to travel in the city.

olonkaGhanaian English

The metal measuring bowl used in Ghanaian markets to sell grain, beans, gari and rice. Markets sell by measure, not by weight.

ORCacronym

Where you register a business in Ghana - business names, companies, partnerships. Formerly part of the Registrar General's Department.

outdooringGhanaian English

The ceremony at which a newborn is formally named and presented, traditionally on the eighth day after birth.

P

PAYEacronym

Income tax deducted from your salary by your employer and paid to the GRA. Charged on graduated bands after SSNIT is deducted.

polytankGhanaian English

The black plastic water tank on Accra roofs and stands. It fills when the mains run and gets you through the days they do not.

PURCacronym

The regulator that sets electricity and water tariffs in Ghana, reviewing them quarterly. It is why any tariff figure goes stale quickly.

pure waterGhanaian English

The 500ml plastic sachets of drinking water sold everywhere in Ghana. You bite the corner off. Cheap, safe, and an environmental problem.

R

Recommendedacronym

A marker used on this site next to an option we would actually pick ourselves, as opposed to one that merely exists.

red redGhanaian English

Black-eyed beans stewed in palm oil, served with fried ripe plantain. Named for the two red things on the plate.

Rent Actacronym

Ghana's tenancy law. It caps advance rent at six months on a monthly tenancy - a limit almost every Accra landlord ignores.

rent advanceGhanaian English

A lump sum of rent - often a year, sometimes two - demanded before a tenant gets the keys. The defining feature of the Accra rental market.

Rent Control Departmentacronym

The government body that mediates tenancy disputes in Ghana, free of charge, and where tenancy agreements should be registered.

Right of Abodeacronym

A status granting people of African descent in the diaspora the right to live and work in Ghana indefinitely, without a residence or work permit.

S

self-containedGhanaian English

A rental unit with its own bathroom and kitchen, rather than facilities shared with other households in the compound.

shitoGa

A dark, intensely savoury Ghanaian chilli paste made with dried fish and prawn. It goes on everything, and you will want to take a jar home.

soboloGhanaian English

A cold drink of hibiscus, ginger, pineapple and spices. The default non-alcoholic offer at any Ghanaian event, and very good.

SSNITacronym

Ghana's national pension scheme. It takes 5.5% of your basic salary, your employer adds 13%, and it pays a pension from age 60.

susuGhanaian English

A traditional savings arrangement where a collector takes a fixed daily amount and returns the total at the end of the month, minus a fee.

T

Tier 2acronym

The privately managed 5% of your pension contribution, chosen by your employer. This is the part you can take as a lump sum at retirement.

Tier 3acronym

Voluntary pension contributions, deductible against income tax up to 16.5% of basic salary. The best tax break a salaried Ghanaian has.

TINacronym

Your tax number in Ghana. Since 2021 it is simply your Ghana Card PIN, so most individuals no longer need a separate one.

trotroGhanaian English

The privately owned minibuses that carry most of Accra. No timetable, no route map, no stops - and it works.

V

VATacronym

Ghana's value added tax. The headline rate is 15%, but three levies are charged first and VAT is applied on top of them.

W

waakyeHausa

Rice and beans cooked with dried millet leaves, served with a pile of accompaniments. Ghana's national comfort food and unofficial inflation index.

wahalaHausa

Trouble, hassle, drama. Borrowed from Hausa and used across West Africa. No wahala means no problem.

WASSCEacronym

The exam at the end of senior high school, sat across West Africa. Your aggregate decides which university programme will take you.

Y

Year of Returnacronym

Ghana's 2019 initiative marking 400 years since the first recorded arrival of enslaved Africans in Virginia, inviting the diaspora to return.

Z

zongoHausa

The historically Muslim, Hausa-speaking quarters of Ghanaian towns, settled by migrants from the north and the Sahel. In Accra: Nima, Mamobi, Newtown.