A Customary Land Secretariat (CLS) has been established at Zini in the Buwa Traditional Area in the Sissala West District of the Upper West Region, to ensure good land governance at the local level.

Established under the phase two of the Land Administration Project (LAP2), the Secretariat is responsible for the recording of all land dealings, as well as serve as a link between the land-owning communities and the Land Sector Agencies, settling land disputes through Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) Mechanism among other functions.

Mr. Kwesi Dautey, Chief Stool Lands Officer at the Office of the Administrator of Stool Lands applauded the tireless efforts of Kuoro Barecheh Nlowie Baninye II, Divisional Chief of Niator and Acting President of the Buwa Traditional Council, for the establishment of the Secretariat.

He urged the people of Buwa to show ownership of and commitment to the Secretariat, to ensure its sustainability through accountable and transparent management.

“By the establishment of the CLS, you are strengthening good governance in land administration at the local level which will help among others, generate and mobilize the needed revenue for socio-economic development,” he noted.

Mr. Dautey said adjoining communities as stakeholders equally have a “stake,” which could not be discounted in a land matter of this nature, and as a result, the Office of the Administrator of Stool Lands in collaboration with the Project Co-ordinating Unit, would sensitize such communities before embarking on the boundary demarcation exercise.

Kuoro Barecheh expressed gratitude to the Office of the Administrator of Stool Lands, for granting their request for the establishment of the CLS, noting that the Secretariat would ensure that land-related disputes and conflicts were minimized to enhance the socio-economic value of the natural resource.

The Acting President of the Buwa Traditional Council cautioned his people against exploiting the land and its natural resources on unsustainable basis, warning that such an act would not be condoned by the Secretariat.

The Divisional Chief of Niator noted that the Buwa Traditional Area was blessed with vast arable land that supported agric-business, industrial or any other purpose and therefore, appealed to all prospective investors and other land users to make the Buwa CLS their first point of call for all forms of land transactions within the Traditional Area.

Mr. Moses Dramani Luri, Sissala West District Chief Executive, pledged the Assembly’s full support to the Secretariat, to enable it play its role effectively to minimize all land-related disputes, to enhance the development of the area.