‘More education on protocols, legal procedures on land acquisition needed’
Stakeholders at a symposium have called on the government to initiate moves to educate the public on the protocols and legal procedures needed in land acquisition in the country.
According to them, the National Commission for Civic Education (NCCE), Land Commission and other major stakeholders should play their role in informing the public about the processes involved in land purchase and registration.
They made the call at a symposium organised by Caritas Ghana in Accra yesterday to share ideas and knowledge on land acquisition to avoid disputes.
In his presentation on a report on “Land Rights and Acquisition of Land”, Dr Patrick Tandoh-Offin, an independent consultant in rural development, said awareness creation would go a long way to cut out the issues related to middlemen and multiple sale of lands.
“By educating the public on the essential measures to take to eliminate the uncertainty and general tedium that one seems to endure in the acquisition and registration of land, the public would be able to avoid the vast majority of the litigations and conflicts that arise from land sales,” he said.
He said fundamental reforms in institutional land management for state entities were required, with a particular focus on developing computerised systems for land management in Ghana.
This system, he said, would require a unified platform with a verified land data to be fed with information about all available lands for purchase which have been verified and certified by a third party.
Dr Tandoh-Offin said there was the need for chiefs and traditional authorities to set up ethical codes of conduct to guide the chiefs, especially, on matters and issues relating to land management.
“As noted in the beginning, most of the lands in Ghana are held by traditional authorities. To deal with the issues that emerge from their management would thus require intense effort from the Regional House of Chiefs, with the efforts of the Ministry of Chieftaincy that has oversight responsibility over the Regional House of Chiefs,” he said.
The Caritas Ghana chairperson, Sister Regina Ignatia Aflah, said Caritas would continue to provide a broad range of development programmes and services targeting the impoverished and vulnerable, especially women who lack equitable resources.
BY AGNES OPOKU SARPONG
