The Ghanaian government pledged on Monday to bring its laws on trade and cargo haulage in tandem with the new United Nations Convention on Negotiable Cargo Documents, initialed for the first time in Accra, the Ghanaian capital, by 26 countries.
Trade, Agribusiness, and Industry Minister Elizabeth Ofosu-Adjare, who initialed for Ghana, said during the signing ceremony on Monday that the trade ministry would lead a review of the country’s laws on transport, sale of goods, evidence, electronic transactions, and secured lending, to ensure that Ghanaian courts and systems are ready to recognize the new document on the day it binds the country.
“Working with the Attorney-General and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, we intend to take the Convention through our constitutional process and to deposit Ghana’s instrument of ratification among the earliest,” Ofosu-Adjare pledged.
The minister said the West African cocoa, gold, and crude oil exporter would start piloting the negotiable cargo documents on the route from the eastern port city of Tema to the north of the country, “because learning doesn’t have to wait for the last article of law to take effect.”
She described the Accra Convention as a groundbreaking instrument as it departs from the existing reality where cargo haulage via road, rail and air transport have never had a comparable instrument, like the maritime bill of lading which performed the functions of acknowledging receipt of goods, evidencing the contract of carriage, and “most importantly, operates as a document of title.”
She noted that the maritime bill of lading enabled cargo to be sold mid-voyage simply by transferring the document, and the document could also be pledged to a bank that holds the document as security and controls release of the goods on arrival.
On the other hand, the CMR road consignment note, the rail consignment note, and the air waybill under the Montreal Convention are deliberately non-negotiable. They confirm receipt and record the contract, but they do not carry title,” added the Ghanaian official.
“That is the imbalance this Convention was written to correct. The signature (we sign today) is for the exporter whose cargo spoils while paperwork catches up. It is for the manufacturer whose capital sits locked in a container. And it is for the small firm that has never been able to borrow against goods on a truck,” Ofosu-Adjare highlighted.
The United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL) organized the signing ceremony in Accra, the Ghanaian capital on Monday to coincide with the 60th Anniversary of the establishment of UNCITRAL.
Initiated and spearheaded by China, the convention was adopted by the 80th session of the UN General Assembly in December 2025.