Lands Commission to Be Modernised

The Lands Commission Secretariat is restructuring its operations to play a more proactive role as a land management agency in the country.

Mrs. Grace Orleans, Chairperson of the Commission, disclosed this when she opened a two-day workshop on "Promoting Good Governance in Customary Land Management" in Accra.

The workshop for the first time brought together traditional chiefs in Accra, Members of Parliament, representatives of land management agencies and civil society organisations to deliberate on problems connected to land acquisition and use in the Greater Accra Region particularly in Accra.

The restructuring exercise was part of a set of measures that were adopted to resolve the contradictions and confusion that surround land administration in the country.

She said the Lands Commission would be transformed into a modern institution and computerised to facilitate its operation. It would also be equipped with a scanner and facilities to store documents for speedy retrieval of data.

In addition, she said that management envisaged a work environment where manual processes of checking land boundaries would be replaced by computerised verification processes, which would be operational soon. The system, she said, would help to eliminate all human errors in land demarcation and documentation.

Mrs. Orleans said as the Commission goes through the transition, the document processing procedures at the secretariat would be reviewed to systematically phase out the manual system.

On the Commission's relationship with other stakeholders in land management, she acknowledged that there had been remarkable progress in bridging the communication gap between them. However, she said there was the need to strike a partnership between the Commission, traditional landowners and civil society to remove suspicion and hostilities surrounding land issues.

That partnership, in her opinion, would serve as technical pool to assist customary landowners in managing their lands. "This can be in the form of helping them establish land records systems for lands they grant, land appraisals to facilitate highest and best use of lands and investment opportunities associated with land in their respective areas of control," she said.

The Chairperson suggested that the Commission could even assist in the management of lands under the active direction of the stools and customary landowners.

Those approaches, she noted, were not intended to maintain continuous government control over stool and customary lands but to enable traditional land owners gain experience to assume direct management of their lands.

In a speech read on his behalf, Dr. Kwaku Afriyie, Minister of Lands Forestry and Mines said the constraints to efficient land management could be removed if there was a clear understanding of land ownership and tenure patterns in the country and the traditional structures that support the ownership patterns.

He reiterated the need to establish and demarcate boundaries with up to date and accurate mapping to facilitate good land administration.

The Minister said there was the need to review the multiple land laws in the country with the view to remove overlaps and conflicts.

Sheikh I.C. Quaye, Greater Accra Regional Minister, questioned the good sense in dissipating energy and resources in fruitless and time-consuming chieftaincy and land disputes at the expense of concentrating on planning the meaningful management of the lands.