Ghana has placed citizenship by investment into pending investment legislation, but no citizenship program, investment route, price, process, or application system exists yet. The proposal is contained in Section 39 of the Ghana Investment Promotion Authority Bill 2026, which instructs the Ministry of the Interior to create legislation on citizenship by investment in consultation with the new Ghana Investment Promotion Authority.
What the bill says
Section 39 of the Ghana Investment Promotion Authority Bill 2026 states that the Ministry of the Interior, in consultation with the authority and in accordance with the constitution and other applicable legislation, shall enact legislation relating to citizenship by investment.
That clause is the full citizenship-by-investment provision. It does not define:
- investment options
- minimum contribution or investment thresholds
- processing timelines
- eligibility rules
- due diligence requirements
- application procedures
- family inclusion rules
- passport issuance conditions
The clause creates a legal instruction to design a future framework, rather than launching an active program.
The bill has not yet become law
Parliament passed the bill on April 2, 2026, but as of early June it was still awaiting presidential assent. Until the president signs it, the bill is not law.
The legislation is referred to as the Ghana Investment Promotion Authority Bill 2026, although it moved through committee as the 2025 bill.
Once signed, the bill would repeal the Ghana Investment Promotion Centre Act of 2013 and replace the Ghana Investment Promotion Centre with the Ghana Investment Promotion Authority, or GIPA.
Which government bodies would be involved
The future citizenship rules would be designed by the Ministry of the Interior, with GIPA in a consulting role.
The bill itself was sponsored by the Finance Ministry, whose minister signed the accompanying memorandum. This creates a split structure:
- the Finance Ministry sponsored the bill
- the Interior Ministry would write the citizenship rules
- GIPA would consult on the process
- no coordination plan has been published
The agency being replaced, the Ghana Investment Promotion Centre, has already begun preparing for the institutional transition. At a board retreat that closed on May 26, its chairman linked the transformation of the institution to implementation of the new framework.
Other investment-law changes in the bill
Citizenship by investment is only one part of the bill. The same legislation restructures Ghana’s investment promotion system and removes the blanket minimum capital requirement that had shaped foreign direct investment rules for more than a decade.
However, one requirement remains for foreign-owned trading enterprises. They would still face a cash equity requirement of $500,000, reduced from $1 million under the old law.
Ghana’s earlier citizenship-by-investment proposal
The idea of selling Ghanaian citizenship is not new. During the 2024 election, independent presidential candidate Nana Kwame Bediako campaigned on a proposal to sell citizenship to 1 million investors of African descent at $50,000 each.
That campaign proposal did not become policy. Section 39 is different because it places the concept inside investment legislation and directs a government ministry to create a legal framework.
How Ghana compares with other African CBI programs
Ghana would enter a market where several African citizenship-by-investment programs already exist or have recently launched.
Egypt has offered citizenship by investment since 2019. Its donation route starts at $250,000, making it the highest-threshold African option mentioned. It has also been slow to gain traction, with 36 citizenships approved in 2025. The transcript attributes part of that slow uptake to new in-person verification rules that most rival programs do not impose.
Sierra Leone launched its Go for Gold program in 2025. Its standard fast-track route is a $140,000 donation with citizenship in roughly 90 days. A heritage route is available for applicants of African ancestry who can prove the connection through a DNA test. That route costs $100,000 and is described as taking around 60 days.
São Tomé and Príncipe launched its program in late 2025. The price is $90,000 plus a $5,000 submission fee. The transcript describes it as the world’s cheapest citizenship-by-investment program and the first new program in three decades priced below $100,000.
Why Ghana’s proposal matters
The regional mobility angle is central. Ghanaian citizenship carries free movement rights across the Economic Community of West African States, or ECOWAS. If Ghana follows through with a citizenship-by-investment program, applicants would not only be seeking a Ghanaian passport, but also regional mobility across ECOWAS member states.
For now, Ghana’s citizenship-by-investment plan remains incomplete. The bill contains a mandate to create rules, but the program itself has not been launched, the investment amounts are unknown, and no application process exists.
