Land records digitisation long overdue – Dr Bawumia

Vice President Dr Mahamudu Bawumia has called for a re-examination of land management and use in the country in order to add more value to the resource.

He said this also allows for leveraging land to achieve other objectives.

On its part, government is determined to digitise the administration of land in the country by the end of 2018.

This is in order to reap the benefits that come with a properly administered land title registration regime.

“There is capital value in land. Let us create a transparent and progressive market for land. Let us securitize it to create wealth.

“We call on the efforts of all stakeholders to make this happen” Dr Bawumia declared at the opening of a Land Administration Forum in Accra Wednesday.

Despite various government interventions, including Phases I and II of the Land Administration Project, the issue of land ownership and use has been a thorny one over the years.

It has bedevilled various governments and usually brought to a sharp halt any efforts to develop land due to disputes over ownership.

Alluding to the widely acknowledged equity vested in land, the Vice President argued that leaving the land management system to remain in its current chaotic state would be inimical to the Akufo-Addo government’s desire to move Ghana beyond aid.

Last year, there were lots of concerns and complaints following JoyNews Hotline documentary; Land Wars by Latif Iddrisu.

The Documentary captured in graphic details the challenges bedevilling Ghana’s land administration with its attendant problems with land guards.

It told the story of many landowners whose lands have been taken away; many prospective land buyers who have been defrauded, and land guards employed by chiefs and some influential persons in society to protect lands and terrorize others who would lay claim to the lands.

Also, in November 2017, the Vice President announced the commencement of the digitisation of land registration processes from 2018.

This was part of government’s agenda to remove the bottlenecks associated with registration of land in Ghana.

He followed it up with a surprise visit to the Lands Commission offices in Accra in February this year where he urged Directors at the Commission to ensure the project takes off.

Dr Bawumia regretted the indiscipline in the land market, including the “flagrant encroachment of state lands, especially by those who should know better.”

He was also worried about the multiple land sales, land insecurity and land-guards syndrome, protracted land disputes, and the lack of total digitization of land administration processes.

“Many who want to register lands are often frustrated by complex processes and often needless delays, and corruption in many facets of the land administration system,” he noted.

The Vice President pledged the Akufo-Addo government’s commitment “to creating a healthy Land Administration environment that promotes investments in land use and management for agricultural transformation, for housing and for industrial activities. 

“It is, therefore, most imperative that we make the strategic interventions needed in addressing the fundamental issues plaguing the current land administration system, and design a roadmap for land administration reforms in Ghana.”

The Land Administration Forum brings together key stakeholders in the management of lands in Ghana, as well as experts from outside Ghana, and is expected to come up with solutions geared towards eliminating the bottlenecks in land administration and use.

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