Lands Commission removes bottlenecks in land acquisition through “major reforms”

Cape Coast, March 11, GNA – The Central Regional Office of the Lands Commission says it has resolved major bottlenecks associated with land acquisition, particularly for business development in line with the government’s industrialisation agenda.

It said through key reforms, hindrances such as double sales of land and delays in acquisition and documentation had been reduced to the barest minimum.

The Commission said even though the new Land Act, Act 1036 (Act 2020) directed a turnaround time for land registration should be within three months, the commission could do it within two weeks.

Mr Kwame K. Danso, the Central Regional Chair of the Commission, told the Ghana News Agency in an interview in response to concerns raised by a section of the public on challenges young businesses and potential investors face in acquiring land in the region.

The government had made a recommitment to make the Central Region an industrial hub in commemoration of the country’s 65th Independence Anniversary.

“Hitherto, it took about a year but now you can walk in today, get your search done, confirm the land that you are buying, who is buying it, and you know that within less than 30 days you can get your land and that is a very major assurance,” Mr Danso stated.

On the reforms, he explained that the Commission had re-engineered its processes to eliminate double registration of documents to reduce the turnaround time.

This was demonstrated through fora such as “Invest in Central Region” and “Central Regional Industrialisation Drive” organised by various stakeholders during the two-week celebration in the region.

While acknowledging the importance of land to the industrialisation drive, Mr Danso indicated that the Commission in collaboration with the Land Use and Spatial Planning Authority (LUSPA) had developed a comprehensive development framework to further ease some of the challenges.

He said the framework identified the capabilities of various lands across the region, which included industrial activities, farming activities and residential developments, to help to unearth the potential of each parcel of land.

“Later, we are going to reduce these planning into local plans where areas will specifically be designated for various uses for industrial activities.

“What needs to be done is for the Region to woo investors and when they come, they will not be frustrated in attempts to acquire lands because the identified areas as industrial hubs will be for such uses,” he stated.

In addition, Mr Danso said his outfit was embarking on a course to automate its processes and digitise its records to make the documentation processes traceable.

The Regional Land Commission Chair said there were plans to put up a new office block for the Commission.

For his part, the Head of Public and Vested Land Management Division, Mr Peter Osei Owusu, said a client service and access unit where complaints were lodged and documents presented for processing had been created as an interface between the Commission and clients.

He said despite the challenges, they were working to deliver a “very “prudent land management tenure for the people.

The staff of the Commission, he indicated, had been directed to ensure that people with innovative ideas that would be of benefit to the people were assisted to facilitate good results.

“Be rest assured that delays and bottlenecks are very minimal and if there are any issues, we will quickly resolve it,” he assured.

GNA