The Ghana Gazette is the government’s official journal: the publication in which a notice becomes a matter of public record. It is published by the Ghana Publishing Company Limited - formerly the Assembly Press, the name many people still use - which is the only body allowed to publish it.

For most people it comes up once, when they change their name. A bank, the passport office or an embassy asks for “the gazette”, meaning a copy of the issue carrying the notice.

What is in it

  • Changes of name, of people and of companies
  • Appointments to public office
  • Acts, Legislative and Constitutional Instruments, and the bye-laws and fee schedules of the assemblies
  • Notices required by law: land acquisitions, company liquidations, election notices, and others

Gazetting a change of name

The gazette notice comes after the sworn declaration, not instead of it:

  1. Swear a statutory declaration of change of name before a Commissioner for Oaths or a lawyer. It states the old name, the new one and the date of the change.
  2. Apply to the Ghana Publishing Company to publish the notice, with the declaration, your Ghana Card and the fee - ask what else they need when you apply. GPCL now lets people apply, track the application and receive the publication online through its e-gazette service, as well as at its offices in Accra and Kumasi.
  3. Get copies of the issue when it is published, and keep the original. Every institution that holds your old name will want to see it alongside the declaration.

The company says it has cut the time to publish a regular gazette notice; it used to take two months or more. Ask for the current time and fee when you apply, and do not pay anyone outside GPCL to “speed it up”.

— Changing or correcting your name — The declaration and the Gazette notice, ready to fill in

Getting a copy

  • A recent issue, or one with your notice: from the Ghana Publishing Company. It sells copies at its business centre and, since October 2026, from an online bookstore that couriers printed copies across the country.
  • An Act or Legislative Instrument: the same bookstore sells them.
  • An old issue: ask GPCL, which publishes every issue.

Checking a gazette is genuine

Fake gazettes exist, especially for name changes that never happened, and GPCL has said it will prosecute those who make them. It now lets anyone check online, without visiting an office, whether a gazette is genuine, and it is putting the issues themselves online so anyone can see what was published on which day. If you are relying on someone else’s gazette - for a land deal, a company or a marriage - check it there.

When you do not need one

Taking a spouse’s surname at marriage generally needs no gazette notice: the marriage certificate shows the change.

— Swearing an affidavit or declaration — Authenticating documents for use abroad