Ghana’s Parliament has passed an investment bill that introduces citizenship by investment into the country’s investment legislation for the first time, but it does not yet create an active program. The bill only instructs the Ministry of the Interior to draft future citizenship rules, with no price, investment route, qualifying criteria, or timeline currently defined.
What the bill says
Section 39 of the Ghana Investment Promotion Authority Bill, 2026 states:
“The Ministry of the Interior shall, in consultation with the Authority and in accordance with the Constitution and any other applicable legislation, enact legislation relating to citizenship by investment.”
That is the full citizenship-by-investment clause. It does not list:
- a donation route
- a real estate investment option
- a fund investment route
- a minimum investment amount
- a processing time
- eligibility rules
- a launch date
The design of any future program would fall to the Ministry of the Interior. The new Ghana Investment Promotion Authority, or GIPA, would have a consulting role.
The bill was sponsored by the Ministry of Finance. Finance Minister Cassiel Ato Forson signed the accompanying memorandum. This means the body that will draft the citizenship rules is not the same body the bill otherwise empowers to attract investors.
Passed by Parliament, but not yet law
Parliament passed the bill on April 2, 2026, but as of early June it was still awaiting presidential assent.
The Ghana Investment Promotion Centre, or GIPC, which GIPA would replace, has already begun preparing for the transition. At a board retreat that closed on May 26, chairman Akwasi Oppong-Fosu linked the institution’s transformation to implementation once the president signs the bill.
Although the bill is labeled as the 2026 version, it moved through committee as the 2025 bill.
Citizenship by investment is only one part of a broader investment-law overhaul. The bill also:
- repeals the Ghana Investment Promotion Centre Act, 2013
- reconstitutes the Centre as the Ghana Investment Promotion Authority
- removes the blanket minimum-capital requirement that has shaped foreign market entry for more than a decade
- keeps a US$500,000 cash-equity floor for foreign-owned trading enterprises
- reduces that trading-enterprise floor from US$1 million under the old law
Previous citizenship-by-investment proposal
The idea of citizenship by investment has appeared in Ghanaian politics before.
During the 2024 election, independent presidential candidate Nana Kwame Bediako, also known as Cheddar, proposed selling citizenship to one million investors of African descent at US$50,000 each.
That proposal did not become policy. Section 39 is different because it places the concept inside investment legislation rather than leaving it as a campaign proposal.
Ghana’s place in the investment migration market
Investment migration remains contested, but more governments have been considering citizenship-by-investment programs. More than a dozen countries have proposed such programs without launching them.
In Africa, citizenship by investment is already active or emerging in several countries:
- São Tomé and Príncipe began issuing passports under a 2025 citizenship-by-investment law.
- Egypt offers an investment route to citizenship.
- Sierra Leone launched a fast-track citizenship program in 2025.
Ghanaian citizenship includes free movement rights across the Economic Community of West African States, or ECOWAS. Sierra Leone, also an ECOWAS member, already offers investment-linked citizenship with the same regional mobility rights.
For now, Ghana does not have an active citizenship-by-investment offer. Whether it becomes an active CBI jurisdiction depends on future legislation from the Ministry of the Interior and the regulations that would define who qualifies, what investments count, and how much applicants would need to pay.
Source article: www.imidaily.com
