Now, the maximum penalty for piracy in Ghana will be reduced to 15 years in prison. This is one of the major reforms of the new bill being prepared by the Justice and the Ghana Maritime Authority.

Currently in Ghana, it would be very difficult to condemn pirates if they were arrested. The Attorney-General, the Office of the Minister of Justice and the Ghana Maritime Authority are working on a new bill, with support from UNODC (United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime). The country is therefore in line with other nations in the sub-region by adopting legislation to be able to condemn pirates. Togo and Nigeria were thus able to hold their first trials for piracy recently. In recent years, pirates have extended their actions further and further into the waters of the Gulf of Guinea, going up to several hundred miles from the Niger Delta, the epicenter of the phenomenon, to kidnap sailors who are released for ransom. For example, Ghana, which is not a border, has recorded nine pirate attacks in its territorial waters since 2020