A pledge is a customary law transaction where the pledgor (borrower) surrenders possession of his property to the pledgee (creditor) “to hold and use until the debt due is paid, an article borrowed is returned or replaced, or obligation is discharged”. Like other customary transactions, pledges have not remained static: social and economic changes in Ghana as well as statutory intervention (which in itself is generally the result of such changes) have contributed to their development. In some respects, pledges are similar to the common law transaction known as mortgages but there are essential differences between the two. However, now the same law would seem to govern both transactions because by virtue of the Mortgages (Amendment) Decree, 1979 (A.F.R.C.D. 37):
Every customary loan transaction in respect of which any farm-land is given