Africa
Source tier A. Conventions checked 2026-07-29.
Drug and firearms law in Ghana: statutes on record and in force
Ghana, in Africa, is party to all four of the instruments tracked here, the last of them since 2014. It appears on neither FATF list. Its legislation on record runs to 2 confirmed instruments, the earliest from 1961. The dates below are the depositary's; the instruments, where any are named, are the register's.
International framework
Ghana is bound by all four instruments this dataset tracks, the earliest from 1990 and the most recent from 2014.
| Instrument | Adopted | Ratified or acceded | Depositary reference |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1988 Convention | 1988 | 10 Apr 1990 | Chapter VI-19 |
| UNTOC | 2000 | 21 Aug 2012 | Chapter XVIII-12 |
| UNCAC | 2003 | 27 Jun 2007 | Chapter XVIII-14 |
| Firearms Protocol | 2001 | 14 Jan 2014 | Chapter XVIII-12-c |
What each instrument obliges a party to do is set out once, per instrument, in the conventions reference. The dates above are what is specific to Ghana: they are the points from which each obligation began to bind, taken from the depositary's own status tables.
National legislation
What follows is the legislation this dataset can point at. A translated title would be a different instrument, so titles are left as enacted.
Narcotic Drugs (Control, Enforcement And Sanctions) Law, 1990 — A principal drug control instrument, carrying the 1988 Convention's trafficking and confiscation obligations into domestic law. Confirmed against the Parliament of Ghana repository, checked 2026-07-30.
Pharmacy And Drugs (Amendment) Regulation, 1961 — An amending instrument in the drug control legislation, which is where the operative text of an older act is usually found. Confirmed against brr.gov.gh, checked 2026-07-30.
Enforcement authorities
3 bodies are named in the record for Ghana, each confirmed on Ghana's own government domain. Naming the body matters because the treaty obligations above bind the state, while the powers to act on them sit with particular institutions under national law.
| Body | Function | Confirmed on |
|---|---|---|
| Ghana Revenue Authority | customs and border control | gra.gov.gh |
| Ghana Immigration Service | immigration and frontier control | gis.gov.gh |
| Ghana Civil Aviation Authority | named in the legislation | siga.gov.gh |
Ratification sequence
The order matters as much as the count. Ghana came to these instruments over 24 years, beginning with the 1988 Convention in 1990 and ending with the Firearms Protocol in 2014. Measured against each instrument's own adoption, the shortest gap was the 1988 Convention at 2 years, the longest the Firearms Protocol at 13.
Ghana became a party to the 1988 Convention in 1990, 2 years after it was adopted — faster than the median lag of 5 years across this dataset.
The years in between are the ones a case from that period would have to be judged against. For the 17 years between 1990 and 2007, Ghana was bound by the 1988 Convention but not yet by the UNCAC, the UNTOC or the Firearms Protocol. For the 5 years between 2007 and 2012, Ghana was bound by the 1988 Convention and the UNCAC but not yet by the UNTOC or the Firearms Protocol. Nothing in the later instruments reaches back into that window, which is why a complete position today says little about a case from then.
On coverage, Ghana is one of 81 jurisdiction s here party to 4 of the four, against 81 party to all four. 6 of the 53 Africa records here are under increased monitoring as the register stands.
Position on the trafficking corridors
Ghana sits on the west african corridor, one of the six corridors profiled here. What the corridor meets at this leg is the record set out above.
The West African corridor — 12 jurisdictions, carrying cocaine. The legs either side of Ghana in the reporting are Liberia and Nigeria. Across the corridor as a whole, 9 of the 12 legs are party to all four instruments, 3 sit outside the Firearms Protocol, 1 carry no confirmed national instrument , and 1 is under increased monitoring. Ghana clears all three of those checks. The route page sets out every leg.
Financial-crime monitoring
As of the FATF plenary statements of 2026-06-19, Ghana is recorded as Not listed . The two statements are issued together and read together, because a jurisdiction named in the second is not on the first. The current statement and what it changed are tracked on the FATF grey list tracker.
Questions about drug and firearms law in Ghana
Which drug-control conventions has Ghana ratified?
All four: the 1988 Convention on 10 Apr 1990, the UNTOC on 21 Aug 2012, the UNCAC on 27 Jun 2007, the Firearms Protocol on 14 Jan 2014.
Is Ghana on the FATF grey list?
No. Ghana appears on neither the increased-monitoring list nor the call-for-action list in the FATF statements of 19 June 2026.
What national drug legislation is on record for Ghana?
Narcotic Drugs (Control, Enforcement And Sanctions) Law, 1990, confirmed against the Parliament of Ghana repository; Pharmacy And Drugs (Amendment) Regulation, 1961, confirmed against brr.gov.gh.
Which register confirms the legislation on this page?
Each instrument names its own. For Ghana that is the Parliament of Ghana repository, brr.gov.gh. Each link resolves to the register's own copy, not to a summary of it.
What is source tier A, and why is this record in it?
Tier A means a national instrument has been confirmed against an official register — for Ghana, 2 of them. The treaty dates and the listing status are separately sourced, so all three layers of this record carry a citation.
Why does the ratification date matter?
The date is the point from which the obligations bind. Ghana's earliest of these commitments dates from 1990, its most recent from 2014; the gap between them is a rough measure of how long the framework took to assemble.
Sources
- Ratification dates: United Nations Treaty Collection, depositary status tables (chapters VI-19, XVIII-12, XVIII-14, XVIII-12-c). Checked 2026-07-29.
- Listing status: FATF, Jurisdictions under Increased Monitoring and High-Risk Jurisdictions subject to a Call for Action, 2026-06-19.
- Narcotic Drugs (Control, Enforcement And Sanctions) Law, 1990: the Parliament of Ghana repository, checked 2026-07-30.
- Pharmacy And Drugs (Amendment) Regulation, 1961: brr.gov.gh, checked 2026-07-30.