General News of Thursday, 18 March 2021

Source: GNA

Lands Minister engages Management of Lands Commission

Samuel Abu Jinapor, Minister for Lands and Natural Resources Samuel Abu Jinapor, Minister for Lands and Natural Resources

Mr Samuel Abu Jinapor, the Minister for Lands and Natural Resources has held a consultative meeting with the Management of Lands Commission to acquaint himself with its operations.

He noted that land played a crucial role in national development efforts and should be given the needed attention to improve the socio-economic development of the country.

Alhaji Sulemana Mahama, the Executive Secretary of the Lands Commission, gave the assurance that the Commission was poised for action and would support the Minister to achieve his mandate.

During the interactions, the Minister urged the Commission to work to achieve the 30-day turnaround time for registering Land Tittle.

He urged management of the Commission to work towards establishing offices in the six newly created regions as the Constitution enjoined them to do.

The Minister entreated the Commission to speed up the digitisation of its manual records to ensure it fully operated in a digital environment to bring more efficiency in land service delivery.

He said that would curb the incidents of multiple sale of land, saying the phenomenon was a serious challenge in the land market and should be eliminated.

Mr Jinapor drew the Commission's attention to the re-development of Kumasi and other regional capitals and tasked it to enforce the laws on land development.

The Executive Secretary of the Commission, in his presentation, took the Minister and his team through the activities of the Commission, including; recruitment of new staff for the newly created regions.

Alhaji Sulemana said a team had been deployed to check on the progress of work on office accommodation and other related matters towards the operationalisation of new offices, and upgrading of existing system to ensure the automation of the Commission's business processes.

Alhaji Mahama identified some challenges facing the Commission, including; poor service conditions of staff, outmoded and defaced map sheets and financial constraints.

The Minister was accompanied by the Technical Director of Lands and the Public Relations Officer.

The Minister also visited the Client Service Access Unit of the Commission, the Records Unit and inspected Phase Two of the Greater Accra Regional Office, which is under construction.