Land registry goes digital

The trouble borne by landowners in moving from different parts of the country all the way to Accra to obtain true copies of land-title deeds will soon be over.

This comes on the heels of government's engagement of a consultant to scan and computerise all registered documents in the deed¬ registry of Accra.

Josanti Infolmaging Ltd, the consulting firm, will provide the mechanism and methodology, capture and digitise manuscripts and documents held in the land registry with a view to ordering the records in the Accra registry according to regions, enabling copies to be sent to the regional registries.

The project, called Intelligent Scanning of the Accra Land Registry Records, is expected to scan approximately 300,000 registered documents in the registry, dating as far back as the 19th century.

It forms part of the Land Administration Project (LAP) started in 2003, which has the objectives of harmonising land registration processes, decentralising the processes and harmonising laws that govern land administration in the country.

At a project kick-off meeting held in Accra last week, Benjamin Quaye, Head of Planning at the Lands Commission, said the LAP will effectively take-off next year.

He said the project brings together under one umbrella the Lands Commission, the offices of Survey and Mapping, and Public Invested Land Management.

"This implies that instead of six separate offices that land buyers used to go to conclude registration of their properties, they will now only have to go to three offices - the Town and Country Planning, Office of Administration of Stool Lands, and then the Lands Commission," he noted.

Until the commencement of the LAP, only two deed-registries were in operation, in Accra and Kumasi.

The LAP saw to the establishment of land registries in all regional capitals, which implies that access to copies of title deeds made before 2003 can only be done in Accra or Kumasi, depending on where the property was registered.

The Intelligent Scanning therefore aims to bridge this regional divide.

Speaking at the meeting, Minister of Lands and Natural Resources Collins Dauda praised the project, saying it will facilitate ordering the records in the registries established at regional capitals.

"It is the further hope of the Ministry that the scanning will secure the existing information against all risks of loss or degradation. The eventual integration of the records into the computerised land information system is one reason why I wish that the project would be extended to other related government agencies,” he added.