Global Frameworks, Local Realities: The Myth of Land Formalisation in Women's Access to Bank Finance

This article interrogates international development frameworks that link land formalisation to women's access to bank finance, arguing that such models misrecognise the socio-legal complexity of property relations in plural legal systems. Using Ghana as a case study, the analysis advances three central claims: first, that gendered divisions of unpaid labour constrain women's capacity to accumulate the capital needed for land acquisition, even where legal entitlements exist; second, that land is not simply an economic asset, but a culturally embedded resource shaped by kinship, lineage, and spiritual obligation; and third, that these embedded meanings generate widespread reluctance to use property as collateral, despite formal title. Drawing on mixed-methods data, the article demonstrates that while formalised property rights are necessary to meet bank lending requirements, they are insufficient to overcome the structural and cultural constraints that shape women's financial trajectories. Development strategies must engage with the semi-autonomous social fields through which gender, land, and finance are negotiated.<p></p>