Greater Accra Regional Lands Commission inaugurated

Accra, Aug. 7, GNA - Sheikh Ibrahim C. Quaye, Greater Accra Regional Minister, on Tuesday observed that the multiple sale of land to prospective buyers was not helping the cause land administration. "The effect of this is the negative impact on the socio-economic progress making it difficult for investors to locate the final authority in concessionary matters," he said.

Speaking at the inauguration of a 13-member Greater Accra Regional Land Commission in Accra on Tuesday, Sheikh Quaye said many tracts of land for state institutions had been encroached upon with reckless abandon and therefore welcomed the reconstitution of the Regional Lands Commission.

The Commission is to manage public lands, advice government and local authorities on the policy framework for the development of particular areas to ensure that individual pieces of land were co-coordinated.

The minister noted that the land problem had been compounded with engagement of land guards, which was the recruitment and arming of persons with violent disposition by chiefs, families and land owners to harass and intimidate and sometimes kill prospective developers in some parts of the country, especially in the Greater Accra Region. He urged the members to bring their expertise to bear on their deliberations to help streamline land administration.

The Minister of lands, Forestry and Mines, Ms Esther Obeng Dapaah, who inaugurated the Commission, said in spite of efforts by government, civil society and corporate bodies, land administration and management continued to be loaded with problems of scattered and restricted access to land records, inadequate land records, wrong surveys and fraudulent land transactions, among others.

She noted the urbanization, particularly migration to Accra, which had seen an increase in population from about 637,000 in the 1970s to 1.658 in the 1990s to three million now had increased the problems of land administration in the city.

She said the inordinate demand for land use with dire consequences had made the task ahead of the Commission enormous and urged members to fashion out the right approach to ensure effective and efficient land administration and management to reduce and prevent problems such as conflicts and encroachments.

"The ministry has put in place the ongoing Land Administration Project and has also submitted the new Lands Commission Bill to cabinet for consideration," she said, and asked stakeholders to make positive and meaningful inputs into the bill to improve land administration. Mrs Iris May Brown, a High Court Judge, led members to swear the oath of secrecy, the official and that of allegiance. The Commission has Professor George K.A. Ofosu-Armaah, Government Appointee of the Accra Metropolitan Assembly, as chairman. O7 Aug. 07