By Ghana will raise fees for registering security interests and searching its Collateral Registry from Nov. 1, the Bank of Ghana said in a notice dated Sept. 1, adding a new cost to secured borrowing and lender due diligence.
The central bank set the fee for registering a secured interest at GHS30, the charge for late registration at GHS50 and the fee for a registry search at GHS15. The notice applies to banks, specialised deposit-taking institutions, non-bank financial institutions and the general public.
The Bank of Ghana issued the notice under Section 77 of the Borrowers and Lenders Act, 2020 (Act 1052). It also referred to earlier notices issued in April and June 2021. The announcement did not state the current fees, so the size of the increase cannot be calculated from the document alone.
The registry is part of the infrastructure lenders use when they take movable assets or other interests as security for credit. A registration records a secured interest, while a search lets a prospective lender check whether an asset has already been pledged. The new charges therefore affect both the act of creating security and the checks made before a loan is approved or refinanced.
For a single loan, the amounts are small beside principal, interest and legal costs. The effect may be more noticeable for small businesses that borrow repeatedly, lenders that file large numbers of registrations, and borrowers whose paperwork arrives late. A late filing would cost GHS50 rather than the standard GHS30, a difference of GHS20, although the notice gives no estimate of how many filings fall into that category.
The change also puts a price on a routine part of credit screening. Lenders may absorb the search fee, pass it to borrowers or include it in their transaction charges. The notice does not prescribe how regulated institutions should account for or disclose those costs. It says only that the affected institutions and the public should take note and be guided accordingly.
The timing matters for Ghana’s credit market because the fee schedule takes effect on Nov. 1, rather than immediately. Banks and other lenders have a two-month window to update forms, customer communications and internal filing procedures. Borrowers arranging secured facilities before the effective date will need to establish which fee applies when the registry service is actually provided.
The Bank of Ghana did not link the review to a target for lending growth, a change in collateral policy or a wider regulatory intervention. It also did not publish a consultation paper, fee-income forecast or assessment of the effect on access to finance. Those questions remain open as institutions prepare for the new schedule.
The notice leaves the practical boundary of a search fee open. It does not say whether a search connected to a new loan, a renewal or a release will be charged in the same way, nor does it explain whether digital and manual requests will follow one schedule. Institutions will have to rely on further guidance or their own operating procedures where the notice does not answer those questions.
That uncertainty is more relevant than the absolute amount for lenders serving thin-margin borrowers. A GHS15 search fee can be folded into a larger facility with little effect, but repeated checks on small or short-term loans may make the fixed cost more visible. The notice itself does not quantify that effect, and there is no basis to say the change will either reduce or increase lending.
For now, the clear change is the date and the three published charges. The next evidence will come from how banks, non-bank lenders and borrowers reflect the fees in contracts and registry activity after November.
