President John Dramani Mahama has lifted the ban on the sale, lease and processing of state and public lands.
Inaugurating the newly constituted Board of the Lands Commission in Accra yesterday, President Mahama announced a new framework to ensure transparency and accountability in Ghana’s land administration system.
According to President Mahama, the embargo on state and public land transactions, which was imposed in January this year, has revealed major land tenure weaknesses that required urgent reforms.
In this regard, he said all future land transactions would be subjected to transparent, digitally verified processes, under a strict oversight regime to ensure integrity and restore trust in the land administration system.
“The lifting of the ban does not signify a return to business as usual. It signals a new disciplined era of land management. We are embarking on a reset that prioritises transparency, fairness, and justice in land administration,” President Mahama stated.
To ensure efficiency in land administration, President Mahama said no land document should take more than 30 working days to be processed.
No Ghanaian, President Mahama stated, should under any circumstance pay bribes or know someone at the top to be able to register their land.
“Corruption within the Lands Commission will no longer be tolerated. I expect the Commission’s leadership to institute strict internal accountability measures,” he said.
“Let this commission be one of work ethics, transparency, and discipline. The days of absenteeism, file manipulation, and deliberate delays to exact bribes must come to an end.”
Revenue generated from the operations of the Commission must be properly accounted for and used for enhanced service delivery and not for personal enrichment, the President cautioned.
He said the government was keen on reaching a social pact with traditional authorities in the administration of lands as the Chieftaincy institution controls over 80 per cent of all lands in the country.
The Presidents said as part of the reforms, all customary land transactions would be digitally registered and publicly accessible.
He said training and technical support would be given to traditional leaders on how to register their lands, guarantee equitable land access to women, youth and vulnerable groups and promote fair distribution of revenues from natural resources to affected communities.
He tasked the Lands Commission to work with the Land Use and Spatial Planning Authority and Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies to enforce zoning and planning regulations to protect public lands reserved for social amenities.
The 25-Member Board is chaired by Wordsworth Odame Larbi. Also on the Board is Osagyefo Oseadeyo Agyemang Badu II, representing the National House of Chiefs, Williams Orleans Oduro, GBA, and Charles Sagoe, Ghana Institution of Surveyors.
There are also representatives from all 16 Regional Land Commissions, the National Association of Fishermen and Farmers, the Environmental Protection Agency, the Lands Ministry and the Executive Secretary of the Lands Commission.
BY JULIUS YAO PETETSI
