Ghana launches new app that can expose if the partner you're dating is already secretly married

• Ghana has launched Marrify, an app designed to help people verify whether a prospective partner is already legally married.

• The app uses verified information from marriage registries, courts, local assemblies and the Ghana Gazette to check marital status.

• Users can also verify whether churches, pastors, imams and wedding venues are licensed to conduct marriages in Ghana.

A new app that lets people verify whether a prospective partner is already married has officially launched in Ghana, aimed at helping couples avoid entering marriages built on hidden information.

The app, named Marrify, was launched in Accra on August 28 in partnership with Ghana's Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection. It functions as a searchable digital registry, pulling verified legal data from the Registrar-General's Department, courts, local assemblies and the Ghana Gazette to confirm a person's actual marital status before anyone commits to marrying them.

Beyond checking marital status, the app also allows users to verify whether wedding venues, churches, pastors and imams are officially licensed to conduct marriages in Ghana, an added layer aimed at catching fraudulent or unregistered wedding officiants before a ceremony takes place.

Speaking at the launch, Ghana's Minister of Gender, Children and Social Protection, Dr Agnes Naa Momo Lartey, praised the initiative for improving transparency and public confidence in how marriages are administered in the country. 

She stressed that marriage carries social, cultural and economic weight far beyond its legal status, affecting not just couples but their children, extended families and wider communities.

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Officials behind the app say the goal is to prevent the emotional, financial and legal fallout that can follow when a partner's true marital history only comes to light after a wedding has already taken place, a scenario that has fuelled countless public disputes and scandals across West Africa over the years.

While the app is currently limited to Ghana's legal and marriage registry systems, its launch has drawn attention well beyond the country, given how universally relatable the underlying problem of discovering a partner's hidden marital history too late tends to be across the region.

The launch adds to a small but growing number of tools across Africa aimed at increasing transparency before marriage, as more countries grapple with how digital records can help prevent fraud, bigamy and hidden marital history from going unnoticed until it's too late