Somewhere in the process of getting something done in Ghana, an official will tell you to “go and swear an affidavit”. This is what that means and how to do it in an afternoon.
It is one of the cheapest and quickest pieces of Ghanaian bureaucracy, and one of the most useful. If your documents disagree with each other, this is usually the fix.
The document you are being asked for
Almost always a statutory declaration — a written statement of fact that you sign in front of a Commissioner for Oaths, who witnesses the signature and stamps it.
People say affidavit, declaration and sworn statement interchangeably. In everyday use in Ghana they mean the same instrument, and a Commissioner for Oaths produces all of them.
What gives it weight is that swearing something false in one is an offence. That is the whole mechanism: you are not proving the fact, you are accepting legal consequences for lying about it.
Where to go
Three places, in rough order of convenience:
- A law office. Most lawyers are Commissioners for Oaths or have one on staff. Quickest route, and they will draft the wording for you.
- A court registry. Every District, Circuit and High Court registry has one. Cheapest, and the queue is the cost.
- A notary public, if — and only if — the document is going abroad. That is a different appointment and a more expensive one.
— Professional services in Accra
What to bring
- The document unsigned. This matters more than anything else here. You sign it in front of the Commissioner. A pre-signed declaration is worthless and will be handed back.
- Photo identification — your Ghana Card or passport.
- The supporting documents the declaration refers to: the birth certificate, the school certificate, the police report.
- Cash, in small notes.
Do not sign it before you get there
The single commonest wasted trip. The Commissioner is witnessing your signature; there is nothing to witness if the signature is already on the page. Print it, take it, sign it there.
What it costs
A small fee, and it varies by where you go — a court registry is cheaper than a law office, and a law office that drafts the wording for you charges for the drafting as well as the oath.
No figure is quoted here because it is set locally rather than published centrally, and a stale figure would be worse than none. Ask before you hand over the document. If the number you hear is large, you are being quoted for something other than an oath.
The problems it actually solves
This is the part worth knowing before you need it, because the answer to a surprising number of Ghanaian administrative dead ends is “swear a declaration”.
Your name is spelled differently across your documents. Birth certificate one way, WASSCE certificate another, bank a third. A declaration states that all of them refer to one person. This is by far the most common use.
You have no record of your date of birth. A declaration of age, often needed to support a late birth registration.
A document is lost. A declaration of loss, usually alongside a police report, is the first step to replacing almost anything.
Somebody has died and the estate needs sorting. Declarations of relationship and of the identity of next of kin.
You are declaring a change of name after marriage or otherwise, which is the step before the Ghana Gazette notice.
A form demands a fact nobody issues a certificate for — that you are single, that you support a dependant, that you reside where you say you do.
Getting the wording right
A declaration is a numbered list of short factual statements in the first person, with your name and address at the top, ending with a line that you make it conscientiously believing it to be true.
Two rules about the content:
State facts, not arguments. “My birth certificate records my name as Kofi Mensah and my passport as Kofi Mensa” is a fact. “The Registry made a mistake” is a position, and it does not belong in a declaration.
Say only what you know. You are swearing to it. Anything you are repeating from someone else should say so.
If the wording matters — anything touching land, an estate or a court case — pay a lawyer to draft it. For a name discrepancy at a bank, the Commissioner will have done a thousand of them and will tell you what to write.
When a declaration is not enough
A sworn declaration is a Ghanaian domestic instrument. It does not make a document acceptable to a foreign embassy, university or immigration authority on its own — that needs authentication, and possibly legalisation, on top.
— Authenticating documents for use abroad
It also does not override a public record. A declaration that your name is spelled a particular way does not amend your birth certificate; it explains the discrepancy to whoever is asking. Amending the record itself is a separate and slower process.
— Ghana’s regulators, and who to complain to — Getting a Ghana Card — Getting a passport