Glossary of Ghanaian terms

A

abanTwi: The government, the state. Usually said with a sigh, and usually about something that has not been fixed.
absorptionGhanaian English: When the organisation you did your service year at hires you at the end of it. The outcome most service personnel are quietly working towards.
Aki-OlaGhanaian English: The revision and past-questions series so common in Ghanaian schools that students use the name for the whole genre.
akwaabaTwi: Welcome. The first word most visitors to Ghana hear, said constantly and mostly meant.
allocation noteGhanaian English: A document from a chief or family indicating an allocation of customary land. It is a step toward title, and it is not title.
apostilleGhanaian English: A certificate that makes a public document acceptable abroad without further legalisation - and a question to ask before you pay anyone.
AyaloloGa: Accra's bus rapid transit service - scheduled buses with proper stops and a fare card, on dedicated routes. Comfortable where it goes.

B

Bank of GhanaEnglish: Ghana's central bank. It licenses every bank, sets the policy rate, administers forex controls, and is the register to check before you trust anyone with money.
bankuGa: A smooth, slightly sour dough of fermented corn and cassava, most famously served with grilled tilapia and hot pepper.
BECEacronym: The exam at the end of junior high school. Your aggregate decides which senior high school you are placed in, which in Ghana matters a great deal.
Births and Deaths RegistryGhanaian English: The agency that registers every birth and death in Ghana and issues the certificates.
bolaGa: Rubbish, waste. Kaya bola are the informal collectors who take your household waste away for a small fee.
Boys quartersGhanaian English: A small separate living unit within the compound of a larger house, originally built as staff accommodation. Often good value and self-contained.

C

chaleGhanaian Pidgin: Friend, mate, buddy. The most useful and most used word in Ghanaian Pidgin - it opens sentences, closes them, and fills every pause.
Chale WoteGhanaian Pidgin: The street art festival held in Jamestown each August - art, performance, music and fashion taking over the streets of old Accra.
Chamber and hallGhanaian English: The most common rental unit in Accra: one bedroom (the chamber) and one living room (the hall), with facilities either private or shared.
chop barGhanaian English: The local Ghanaian restaurant: a shed, plastic chairs, a few dishes, and a cook who has been making one of them for thirty years.
chop moneyGhanaian English: Money given for household food and daily expenses. A real and negotiated part of many Ghanaian household arrangements.
CIDacronym: The Ghana Police unit that investigates crime, and the office that issues the police clearance certificate a foreign visa or job asks for.
CIFacronym: The value customs charges duty on - what you paid for the goods, plus the freight, plus the insurance. Not what is on your receipt.
Commissioner for OathsGhanaian English: The person who witnesses you swear an affidavit. Found at every court and in most lawyers' offices, and cheap.
compound houseGhanaian English: A house where several households live in separate rooms around a shared central yard, sharing bathroom, kitchen and washing space.
Cyber Security AuthorityGhanaian English: The agency for cybersecurity incidents and online fraud reporting, set up under the Cybersecurity Act 2020.

D

Data Protection CommissionGhanaian English: The regulator for personal data. It registers data controllers and takes complaints about the misuse of your information.
demurrageGhanaian English: What the shipping line and the terminal charge for every day your container sits at the port. It is why a slow clearance costs more than a wrong one.
Detty DecemberGhanaian Pidgin: The December season of concerts, parties and diaspora homecoming that takes over Accra, roughly from mid-December to the new year.
droppingGhanaian English: Taking a taxi direct to your destination rather than sharing it. You negotiate the fare before getting in, because taxis have no meters.
dumsorTwi: From the Akan for off (dum) and on (so) - the rolling power cuts that have come and gone in waves in Ghana for decades.
DVLAacronym: Ghana's licensing authority. It issues driving licences, registers vehicles and inspects them for roadworthy certificates.

E

E-Levyacronym: A tax on mobile money transfers introduced in 2022 and repealed in April 2025. If a guide still describes it as current, that guide is out of date.
ECGacronym: The state electricity distributor for southern Ghana. Its prepaid meters, and the credit that runs out at 2am, are a fixture of Accra life.
ɛte sɛnTwi: How are you, in Twi. The standard reply is bɔkɔɔ - fine, or cool. Greeting before you speak is not optional in Ghana.

F

FDAacronym: The regulator for food, medicines, cosmetics and medical devices. Nothing in those categories clears the port without it.
fufuTwi: Cassava and plantain pounded into a smooth elastic dough, eaten in soup. You do not chew it - you swallow.

G

gariEwe: Grated, fermented, dried cassava granules. Sprinkled on waakye, soaked in water as a drink, or cooked into gari fortor.
GEPAacronym: The agency that promotes non-traditional exports, and the first stop if you want to sell Ghanaian goods abroad.
GESacronym: The agency that runs Ghana's public schools - it employs the teachers, registers the schools and is who a complaint about one goes to.
Ghana Cardacronym: Ghana's national identity card, issued by the NIA. Its PIN doubles as your tax number, and almost nothing official happens without it.
Ghana GazetteGhanaian English: The official public record. A change of name is not finished until it appears there.
GhanaPostGPSacronym: Ghana's national digital addressing system. Every five-metre square has a code like GA-183-4567, which is what forms and couriers actually want.
GIPCacronym: The agency that registers foreign investment and sets the minimum capital a foreign-owned company must bring into Ghana.
GISacronym: The agency that controls entry to Ghana and issues residence and work permits. You will deal with them for anything beyond your entry stamp.
goro boysGhanaian English: Unofficial fixers who hang around government offices offering to speed up your paperwork for a fee. Using them is a bad idea.
GRAacronym: Ghana's tax authority. It collects income tax, VAT, customs duties and withholding tax, and it is who you file with.
GSAacronym: The national standards body. It sets product standards and inspects imports, and its approval gates a great deal at the port.
GSSacronym: Ghana's national statistics office. It runs the census, publishes inflation monthly, and is the source behind almost every official Ghanaian figure.

H

harmattanGhanaian English: The dry, dust-laden wind that blows down from the Sahara roughly December to February. It hazes the sky, cracks your skin, and cools the nights.
HomowoGa: The Ga festival of Accra, meaning hooting at hunger. It commemorates surviving a famine, and is marked by sprinkling kpokpoi through the streets.
hot deskGhanaian English: A desk you rent by the day or the month at a co-working space, without it being yours. The usual way to work in Accra without an office.
HS codeacronym: The international product code that decides your duty rate. Get it wrong and you pay the wrong duty, which customs eventually notices.

I

ICUMSacronym: The single online system every Ghanaian customs declaration goes through. Still widely called UNIPASS.
indentureGhanaian English: The document conveying an interest in land in Ghana. Necessary but not sufficient - it is not the same as registered title.

J

jollofGhanaian English: Rice cooked in a tomato and pepper base. The subject of a long-running and entirely sincere rivalry between Ghana and Nigeria.

K

KantamantoGhanaian English: The enormous second-hand clothing market in Accra Central, and one of the largest in the world. Where much of the Global North's discarded clothing ends up.
kayayeiGa: The women and girls who carry goods on their heads for a fee in Accra's markets, most of them migrants from northern Ghana.
keleweleTwi: Ripe plantain cubed and fried with ginger, chilli and spice. Sold from roadside stands in the evening, and impossible to stop eating.
kenkeyGa: Fermented corn dough steamed in husks. Sour, dense and filling, served with pepper and fried fish. Ga kenkey and Fante kenkey differ.
knockingGhanaian English: Kokooko - the formal visit by a man's family to a woman's family to ask permission to marry, bringing drinks and gifts.

L

land guardGhanaian English: Armed groups who take physical possession of a plot and demand payment before you can develop it. A criminal offence, and a real risk.
lorry stationGhanaian English: The terminals trotros and buses run between, organised by destination. Circle, Kaneshie, Madina, Tema Station and Lapaz are the big Accra ones.

M

mateGhanaian English: The conductor on a trotro. Hangs out of the door calling the destination, collects fares, gives change, and decides when the bus is full.
medaaseTwi: Thank you, in Twi. Medaase paa is thank you very much. One of the highest-value words you can learn in Accra.
MelcomGhanaian English: Ghana's largest department store chain, and the default place to buy household goods, appliances and school supplies at fixed prices.
MESTacronym: A training programme and seed fund in Accra that has been producing African software founders since 2008, and a large part of why the ecosystem exists.
MoMoGhanaian English: Mobile money - the payment system Ghana actually runs on. Rent, salaries, market traders and trotro fares all move over it.
momo fraudGhanaian English: The family of scams built around mobile money: the wrong-number reversal, the fake agent, the prize, the impostor from your own network.

N

NaCCAacronym: The body that writes Ghana's school curriculum and approves textbooks. If a book is not on its list, a school should not be making you buy it.
national serviceGhanaian English: The compulsory year every Ghanaian graduate of an accredited tertiary institution works wherever the state posts them, on an allowance set by government.
NCAacronym: The telecoms regulator. It licenses the networks, allocates spectrum and is who to complain to when a network takes your money and gives you nothing.
NHILacronym: A 2.5% levy on most goods and services that funds the NHIS. It is charged before VAT, which is part of why the effective VAT rate is so high.
NHISacronym: Ghana's public health insurance. Cheap to join, broad in coverage, and it takes 90 days to activate - so register before you need it.
NIAacronym: The agency that issues the Ghana Card. Where you go to register, and where you follow up when the card does not arrive.

O

obroniTwi: A white or foreign person. Usually neutral or affectionate rather than hostile, and children will shout it at you cheerfully.
okadaGhanaian English: A commercial motorcycle taxi. Fastest way through Accra traffic, technically illegal, and the most dangerous way to travel in the city.
olonkaGhanaian English: The metal measuring bowl used in Ghanaian markets to sell grain, beans, gari and rice. Markets sell by measure, not by weight.
ORCacronym: Where you register a business in Ghana - business names, companies, partnerships. Formerly part of the Registrar General's Department.
outdooringGhanaian English: The ceremony at which a newborn is formally named and presented, traditionally on the eighth day after birth.
overage penaltyGhanaian English: An extra charge on top of duty for importing a vehicle over ten years old, rising steeply with age.

P

pamphletGhanaian English: At a Ghanaian university, the bound handout a lecturer sells for their own course. Sometimes the only text that matches what is examined.
past questionsGhanaian English: Old exam papers, revised from religiously. In Ghana they are less a study aid than the central technology of exam preparation.
PAYEacronym: Income tax deducted from your salary by your employer and paid to the GRA. Charged on graduated bands after SSNIT is deducted.
polytankGhanaian English: The black plastic water tank on Accra roofs and stands. It fills when the mains run and gets you through the days they do not.
protocolGhanaian English: Using a personal connection to get a school place, a job, a posting or a file moved. Everyone deplores it and a great many people use it.
PURCacronym: The regulator that sets electricity and water tariffs in Ghana, reviewing them quarterly. It is why any tariff figure goes stale quickly.
pure waterGhanaian English: The 500ml plastic sachets of drinking water sold everywhere in Ghana. You bite the corner off. Cheap, safe, and an environmental problem.

R

Recommendedacronym: A marker used on this site next to an option we would actually pick ourselves, as opposed to one that merely exists.
red redGhanaian English: Black-eyed beans stewed in palm oil, served with fried ripe plantain. Named for the two red things on the plate.
redenominationEnglish: In July 2007 Ghana knocked four zeros off the cedi - 10,000 old cedis became 1 Ghana cedi. It is why old prices and long-run currency charts are unreadable.
Rent Actacronym: Ghana's tenancy law. It caps advance rent at six months on a monthly tenancy - a limit almost every Accra landlord ignores.
rent advanceGhanaian English: A lump sum of rent - often a year, sometimes two - demanded before a tenant gets the keys. The defining feature of the Accra rental market.
Rent Control Departmentacronym: The government body that mediates tenancy disputes in Ghana, free of charge, and where tenancy agreements should be registered.
Right of Abodeacronym: A status granting people of African descent in the diaspora the right to live and work in Ghana indefinitely, without a residence or work permit.
roadworthyGhanaian English: The DVLA certificate saying your vehicle passed inspection. Driving without a current one is an offence, and the police check.

S

self-containedGhanaian English: A rental unit with its own bathroom and kitchen, rather than facilities shared with other households in the compound.
shitoGa: A dark, intensely savoury Ghanaian chilli paste made with dried fish and prawn. It goes on everything, and you will want to take a jar home.
SIM swapGhanaian English: Someone persuades a network to move your number onto their SIM. Your phone goes dead, and they receive every one-time password you were about to.
soboloGhanaian English: A cold drink of hibiscus, ginger, pineapple and spices. The default non-alcoholic offer at any Ghanaian event, and very good.
SSNITacronym: Ghana's national pension scheme. It takes 5.5% of your basic salary, your employer adds 13%, and it pays a pension from age 60.
statutory declarationGhanaian English: A written statement sworn before a Commissioner for Oaths. The standard Ghanaian fix for a name that does not match across your documents.
susuGhanaian English: A traditional savings arrangement where a collector takes a fixed daily amount and returns the total at the end of the month, minus a fee.

T

Tier 2acronym: The privately managed 5% of your pension contribution, chosen by your employer. This is the part you can take as a lump sum at retirement.
Tier 3acronym: Voluntary pension contributions, deductible against income tax up to 16.5% of basic salary. The best tax break a salaried Ghanaian has.
TINacronym: Your tax number in Ghana. Since 2021 it is simply your Ghana Card PIN, so most individuals no longer need a separate one.
trotroGhanaian English: The privately owned minibuses that carry most of Accra. No timetable, no route map, no stops - and it works.

U

user agencyGhanaian English: The employer you are assigned to for your national service year. Which one you get decides almost everything about how the year goes.
USSDacronym: The star-hash codes that run Ghana. *170# is mobile money. No app, no data, works on any phone.

V

VATacronym: Ghana's value added tax. The headline rate is 15%, but three levies are charged first and VAT is applied on top of them.

W

waakyeHausa: Rice and beans cooked with dried millet leaves, served with a pile of accompaniments. Ghana's national comfort food and unofficial inflation index.
WAECacronym: The examinations council for five West African countries. It sets and marks the BECE and the WASSCE, and publishes the syllabuses everyone revises from.
wahalaHausa: Trouble, hassle, drama. Borrowed from Hausa and used across West Africa. No wahala means no problem.
WASSCEacronym: The exam at the end of senior high school, sat across West Africa. Your aggregate decides which university programme will take you.

Y

Year of Returnacronym: Ghana's 2019 initiative marking 400 years since the first recorded arrival of enslaved Africans in Virginia, inviting the diaspora to return.

Z

zongoHausa: The historically Muslim, Hausa-speaking quarters of Ghanaian towns, settled by migrants from the north and the Sahel. In Accra: Nima, Mamobi, Newtown.