Through a mixed methodology that employs qualitative socio-legal and doctrinal approaches to legal research, this thesis considers the inclusion of land within a Personal Property Security Act (PPSA) framework of modern secured transactions in Ghana, as an example in Anglophone sub-Saharan Africa. This consideration is in the broader context of the main intellectual debates about secured transactions law reform, namely; (i) whether and how secured transactions reform produces economic benefit, through increase in certainty and reduction in transaction cost, and; (ii) how far it is legitimate to take a legal framework from one country and transplant it into another with different social and economic issues, as well as a different legal culture.

This thesis, thus, provides a case study of how a legal transplant (the PPSA/Model Law system) can be adapted to relate specifically to the needs and problems of a particular state or group of states and throws light on the challenges created by that type of adaptation. It is, however, not an economic study that examines or proves whether economic benefits from this reform have been attained in Ghana, but rather identifies the benefits of such an adaption of the PPSA relating to how the inclusion framework promotes legal certainty, which is (as a matter of the application of transaction cost theory) expected to enhance access to credit as well as lowering the cost of credit. The associated challenges with such an adaptation are identified as both conceptual and practical. This conclusion, among others, is informed by the qualitative study.

In addition to providing a basis for further reform and refinement of the reform law in Ghana, both on the books and in practice, this thesis initiates a debate on the desirability and/or feasibility of the inclusion of land within the secured transactions regimes of other Anglophone sub-Saharan Africa countries.

This thesis argues that, despite the accompanying challenges, including land in a PPSA framework of modern secured transactions in Anglophone sub-Saharan Africa is a more legally efficient arrangement for the use of land to access credit than the traditional real property mortgage regime, especially in Ghana and other countries in the region that have land administration and real property mortgage law challenges.