Lands Commission improves revenue by 12% in 2023

The Lands Commission has raked in a revenue of GH¢206,868,050.45 for the year of 2023, a 12 percent increase of GH1¢74,086,675.61 for the same period of 2022.

The Commission hoped to raise that amount further should the proposed 15 per cent increment in fees which is currently before Parliament is approved.

Speaking to a gathering of journalists, staff members of the Commission, Chairman of the Parliamentary Select Committee on Lands and Forestry, Deputy Minis­ter of Lands and Natural Resourc­es, and members of the National Lands Commission, Mr Benjamin Arthur, the Executive Secretary of the Lands Commission, gave the assurance that revenue target will shoot up pending the approval of a 15 per cent proposal before legislatures.

According to him, the year 2023 was laced with a plethora of challenges, but the strides made outweigh the downs.

To upscale performance of the Commission, it intends to strength­en what he termed legislative and policy framework.

In view of that, a consultant was engaged by the Commission to prepare legislative Instruments for the Land Act, 2020 (Act 1036) and the Lands Commission Act, 2008 (Act 767).

The first drafts of the Com­mission, he indicated have been completed by the Consultants and submitted to the Lands Com­mission for further stakeholders engagements.

In response to the directive from the Minister for Lands and Natural Resources, a committee was set up to draft a policy on public land management in which draft policy had been completed for onward submission to the sector ministry for consideration and approval.

When operational, he noted that the policy will guide the procedure and processes for the allocation and general management of state lands.

Again, he observed that in line with the provisions of the Lands Act, 2020, Act 1036, and on the Minister of Lands and Natural Resources’ directives, a committee was set up to make recommenda­tions for divesting vested land.

The Executive Secretary revealed that the Lands Commission as part of its digitalisation drive has estab­lished a modernised land record management system.

The initiative which is aimed at fast-tracking land documentation includes scanning, geo-referencing, and archiving of existing records.

In addition, the land-modernised system is expected to facilitate the retrieval of files for various purposes.

The digitalisation drive, he stated is expected to facilitate the auto­mated workflow processes of the Commission.

He maintained that the system will see a facelift in improving maps and spatial data.

Other benefits, the Executive Secretary stated are to enable the Lands Commission to render services using a variety of digital platforms, automate workflow pro­cesses of the Commission, decen­tralisation of services to augment the Information and Communi­cation Technology infrastructure of the Lands Commission, while retooling the Lands Commission by procuring state-of-the-art equip­ment, computers, servers, vehicles and develop online access to the Lands Commission.

The Executive Secretary was op­timistic that the new system would facilitate a systematic recording/ titling, verification.

This, he added, will speed up coverage and completion of land title records of the country.

The Commission, he noted, prioritises training of employees in a bid to raise efficiency and performance.