The Electronic Transactions Act, 2008 (Act 772) of The Republic of Ghana: Origins, Content, Judicial Application and The Case for Reform

Drafted in 2008, Act 772 could not, and does not, address technologies that have since transformed electronic transacting, including smartphone-based mobile money, cloud computing and cross-border data storage, blockchain and distributed ledger transactions, self-executing smart contracts, and the generation of records by artificial intelligence systems rather than by a human originator or a simple electronic agent as defined in section 144. While section 143 empowers the Minister to make regulations to address matters not adequately covered by the Act, no such regulations have comprehensively addressed these emergent technologies, leaving significant legal uncertainty as to how, for example, an AI-generated contractual term or a blockchain-recorded transaction is to be treated under sections 17 and 21 of the Act.