In 2019, President Nana Akufo-Addo launched a $97 million e-Justice project, a paperless court system that would enhance Ghana’s efforts at improving its justice delivery.
Funded by the World Bank, the project sought to automate the existing manual filing systems within the court registries, from the filing of cases to the execution of court decisions.
“The project is attempting to help ensure that the law keeps pace with technology, ending the age-old “missing dockets” phenomenon and endless litigations, which have plagued the efficient delivery of justice in the country for several years,” the President stated.
The plan was to roll out the e-Justice project to the Supreme Court, the Court of Appeal, all High and Circuit Courts in the regional capitals as well as the Tema Metropolitan area by 2022.
Fast forward to 2023 and the platform appears to have setbacks due to delays and technical challenges which have slowed down implementation in the court systems.
Digging Deeper
Even after its launch, there were several reports that the system was “unusable” due to unreliable internet service which prevented users from accessing the system for cases and filings.
As of this publication, the security certificate for its login page expired close to three months ago, rendering the site “insecure” for web users.
(Users can still access the login to the site if they choose to bypass the security warning but we don’t recommend entering your login details)
By The Numbers
Information on the use of the platform is scarce but according to a document by the Judicial Service of Ghana in 2022, the number of cases on the system was 61,000+ as of 2022. This is an increase from 58,495 compared to the previous year.
According to the same document, it appears the system’s scope for a pilot was changed to 2022 and will be ready in 2026 despite “launching” in 2018.
What Happens Now
From our research, the system is still being implemented on the backend with “Phase Two” of the project being set in motion. According to an expression of interest sent out in 2022, the project was seeking a consultant for the implementation of a change management system.
As of now, it’s difficult to determine if the system is ready with some lawyers we reached out to stating that they don’t use the eJustice platform due to technical challenges which leads to resorting to the manual process. Some judges, due to the same technical challenge, haven’t adopted the use of the system.
Catch up on news and other tidbits on our WhatsApp Community Page, Twitter/X, and subscribe to our weekly newsletter to ensure you don’t miss out on any news.
