Tema, July 01, GNA – Mr George Okwabi Frimpong, a member of the License Surveyors Association has advised Ghanaians to have an interest in the Land Act 2020, Act 1036.
He stressed that the Act seeks to save many Ghanaians from falling victim to the many land issues the country was confronted with; and the passage of the act, would empower the Lands Commission and Ministry of Lands to come out with some regulations and legislative instrument (LI) to operationalize the act.
Mr Okwabi Frimpong was speaking at the fourth “GNA – Tema Stakeholder Engagement and Workers’ Appreciation Day,” Seminar at the Tema Regional Office of the Ghana News Agency which is a progressive platform created to give opportunity to state and non- state actors to interact with journalists and address national issues as well as throw more light on the institutions’ mandate.
The event also serves as a motivational mechanism to recognize the editorial contribution of reporters to the professional growth and promotion of the Agency as the industrial news hub, while contributing to national development.
Mr Okwabi Frimpong who was a former staff of the Lands Commission said, “if you are interested in land, whatever shape and form, you need to know a few things from the Act so you don’t fall victim to land issues which have become a nightmare to for many Ghanaians.”
According to him, a person in trust of land for a family, clan, stool or skin, the law states that in your dealings with the land, you should be transparent, open, fair and impartial in making decisions affecting the specified land.
Mr Okwabi Frimpong noted that going contrary to the law would attract a fine of not less than 5,000 penalty units and not more than 10,000 penalty units.
He stated that this was to bring some sanity into land dealings in the country noting that the Act sought to deal with land litigating end to multiple sale of lands.
He said the law mandates family or group which owns a land, to establish a Customary Land Secretariat thus a small unit to manage the land at the local, family or stool level whereby “all land transactions have to be recorded”.
According to Mr Okwabi Frimpong, the Lands Commission and the office of the Administrator of Stool Lands would provide technical services to the Customary Land Secretariat.
Mr Francis Ameyibor,Tema Regional Manager of GNA stated that the stakeholder engagement was a progressive platform created to give the opportunity to both state and non-state actors an opportunity to interact with journalists and address national issues as well as throw more light on the institution’s mandate.
He said the office had rolled out a number of programmes including; packaging of security information to wake up the national consciousness of safety, traditional news to promote culture, local government news, tracking of development projects in the districts, real estate news and projection of industrial news among others.
GNA