Concerted efforts required to transform Ghana’s land administration – Owusu-Bio

The Deputy Minister for Lands and Natural Resources, Benito Owusu-Bio on Friday, 9th December, 2022, closed the maiden edition of the four-day National Land Conference with a call on stakeholders to play their respective roles in making land administration in Ghana better.

"I can assure you that the political will exists, but the government alone cannot do it. We need the concerted effort of everyone, else this conference would have been a waste of time. Let us come together to play our respective roles to make land administration better. We have the political will to transform land administration," he stressed.

The Deputy Minister noted that after three impactful high-level policy dialogues, and over 20 presentations during technical sessions, he is confident that most, if not all of the objectives of the conference have been met.

He indicated that the report emanating from the conference shall inform the next steps that the Ministry and its agencies in collaboration with the development partners and Civil Society Organizations will take in view of making land administration more transparent and efficient.

Having played an instrumental role in organizing the conference, Mr Owusu-Bio assured that the next steps for the Ministry is to continually coordinate and facilitate the implementation of recommendations from the conference, while urging all participants to employ the same level of passion with which they have discussed the issues to implement the proposed solutions.

"We will immediately commence steps to establish a multi-stakeholder platform to monitor the implementation of the Conference recommendations," he added.

Mr Owusu-Bio appreciated all the partners and sponsors of the conference, not forgetting the stakeholders from Academia, Civil Society, Revered Chiefs and Queens, Public Sector and Private Sector land professionals, and government representatives for their participation in the conference.

For his part, the National Chairman of the Lands Commission, Mr. Alex Quaynor assured that all the information gathered from their deliberations at the conference will be used to review the 1999 land policy and bring out concrete plans to be put to action.

He stated that as far as the mandate to ensure the proper administration of the country’s land resource is concerned, they will await next instructions from the Ministry and government to put them into effect.

As recommendations, the four-day conference among others called on the government to prioritize the systematic surveying and mapping of customary and state land boundaries and the boundaries of metropolitan, municipal and district assemblies to reduce the numerous land ownership disputes in the country; to set out comprehensive program for the registration of title in land as mandated by the 1992 constitution and the Land Act, 2020 (Act 1036)

It also beaconed the government to comprehensively map the country at large, medium and small scales to facilitate land use planning and spatial development for rapid economic development and provide resources for a holistic and participatory approach to land use planning.

The conference recommendation also seeks government's efforts to support of all key stakeholders to raise awareness of the citizenry on the Land Use and Spatial Planning Act, 2016 (Act 925) and the Land Act, 2020 (Act 1036).