A sweeping effort to bring order and transparency to Ghana’s burgeoning religious sector is on the horizon, as the Ministry of Local Government, Chieftaincy and Religious Affairs announces plans for a nationwide digital registry of churches.
On Wednesday, February 18, 2026, Minister Ahmed Ibrahim addressed Parliament, revealing that while over 2,200 churches are formally registered in Greater Accra as of 2025, thousands more operate nationwide without official recognition.
Minister Ibrahim outlined the government’s intention to introduce a digital platform to streamline the registration process and provide accurate, real-time data on churches across the country. “We will establish a formal collaboration with the Registrar General’s Department, the Office of the Attorney General, and the Ministry of Justice to assess records of churches registered as companies limited by guarantee,” he stated.
He further explained that metropolitan, municipal, and district assemblies would keep local registers of churches under their jurisdictions, while the new digital platform would empower churches to update their operational status regularly. This initiative, he said, aims to ensure accurate, comprehensive, and up-to-date data, critical for governance, planning, and regulatory oversight.
Recent regional surveys show that in Greater Accra, 98.1% of churches are single-owner entities, with the remainder affiliated to larger denominations. Though the Registrar General’s Department does not publish a consolidated national figure, available data suggest that the total number of churches in Ghana is in the several thousands.
The proposed digital registry will be linked to the Registrar General’s database, enabling verification of operational churches and enhancing transparency in the sector. Minister Ibrahim concluded, “This is a timely step toward modernising our administrative systems and strengthening accountability in the religious sector, which has experienced rapid growth in recent decades.”
The Ghana Statistical Service, meanwhile, continues to track religious affiliations rather than registrations, with 71.2% of Ghanaians identifying as Christians, according to the 2021 Population and Housing Census.
Source: Apexnewsgh.com