To streamline and update customary practice in the area of inheritance in Ghana, the former Provisional National Defence Council (PNDC) government passed the PNDC Inheritance Law in 1985.
The law is a combination of four separate laws (They include PNDC Law 111 (succession), PNDC Law 112 (customary marriage and divorce), PNDC Law 113 (administration of estate) and PNDC Law 114 (head of family accountability).
PNDC Law 114 states that any property belonging to the matrilineal lineage must go to that family, upon the death of the head of the family. Properties belonging to the matrilineal lineage include all land, farms and houses the father inherited from the matrilineal lineage.
Some persons have criticized the matrilineal system of inheritance as an old custom that should be discarded as the world has gradually moved full mode into the nuclear family system.
The practice itself is dying out among the Asantes due to changing economic and social circumstances. As a result, fathers currently tend to be responsible for their own children, instead of caring for nephews and nieces.
However, when an Asante has not indicated his wishes to the contrary, “inheritance generally falls to the man’s sister’s son who, as a lineage member of the younger generation is the presumptive heir”
Source: MyNewsGh.com /2022