The Ghana Airports Company Limited (GACL) has clarified that passengers who possess legally registered firearms are allowed to travel by air, as long as they formally disclose the weapons to airport security personnel. The announcement follows revelations in the 2024 Auditor-General’s report, which highlighted the seizure of more than 2,000 illegal firearms and rounds of ammunition.

Appearing before the Public Accounts Committee of Parliament, GACL Managing Director Yvonne Opare explained that the company has introduced a strengthened weapons declaration procedure aimed at improving safety and security across the nation’s airports.

“Currently, we have a directive from civil aviation who is the operator, sorry, the regulator of the aerodromes in Ghana. And the directive indicates that a person commits an offense if that person carries a weapon or ammunition into an aerodrome or an aircraft for the purpose of traveling without the relevant authorization or declaration to an air operator. So if you do not have the requisite license, you are not allowed to travel with a weapon. So currently, that is in place. Subsequent to that occurrence, there was no law or no act in place. So then they could carry their weapons. At that time, yes“

“If you have a weapon currently, you have to declare it. Once you declare it and it's licensed, you are able to travel with it. If it is not licensed, we confiscate it and send it to the National Investigation Bureau. if it's licensed but not declared, we'll still confiscate it.“