Traditional authorities urged to register lands

The Acting Western Regional Lands Officer, Stephen Oduro-Kwarteng has advised Traditional Authorities and all genuine landowners to register their land so that the Land Commission or the state could protect their lands for them.

He urged the Chiefs and other Family Heads to consider the registration of title or deeds to their land as the most important step in fighting off or preventing any other parties from laying claim to their property now and forever.

Mr. Oduro-Kwarteng gave the advice at a Public Education and Sensitization programme at Agona-Nkwanta in the Western Region organized by the Lands Commission under the auspices of the Second Ghana Land Administration Project (LAP-2), to educate the traditional authorities on land and land related issues and, especially on the need for the prudent management of land.

He noted that when the Chiefs and the Queen Mothers go through statutory declaration on the ownership of land, then the Commission and other land agencies would be in the position to defend and come to their aid against encroachers and the illegal sale of such parcels of land by unscrupulous persons, especially following the discovery of oil in the region.

The event was attended by Chiefs and Queen Mothers of Agona-Nkwanta, the District Chief Director, Staff of Decentralized Agencies, Staff of the Lands Commission, Office of Administration of Stool Lands and the Town and Country Planning Department.

The Central Regional Stool Lands Officer, Mrs. Ruth Paintsil urged the traditional authorities to embrace the Customary Land Secretariat (CLS) which would ensure proper documentation of land transactions in the District and eliminate conflicts between one traditional area and another, as well as improve security of land tenure.

Nana Kwesi Agyemang IX, Paramount Chief of the Lower Dixcove Traditional Area, expressed appreciation on behalf of the traditional authorities to the Regional Project Team and his team, and called for more of such outreach activities to help address land issues.

The Land Administration Project(LAP-2) aims at enabling the Land Sector Agencies to be more responsive to clients, cutting down the cost and time of doing business and providing an enabling environment to reflect the objective of an efficient and transparent service delivery.