Developments in pledge of land in Ghanaian customary law

Abstract

There are two principal methods whereby land may be used as security for a loan in Ghana. One is the customary law transaction called a mortgage by Sarbah.2 The other is the common law mortgage. It will be convenient to refer to the customary law transaction as a “pledge”, because the creditor obtains possession of the land, and the present article is not concerned with the use of chattels as security. Accordingly, “mortgage” will always mean a common law mortgage.