Minister for Lands and Natural Resources, Samuel A. Jinapor
The Minister for Lands and Natural Resources, Samuel A. Jinapor has given the assurance that the far-reaching measures being implemented by the government in the land administration space will result in an efficient land administration system in the country.
Taking his turn at the Ministry of Information’s press briefing on Tuesday, 28 September 2021, Mr Jinapor said that the government, upon assumption of office in 2017 embarked on drive to reform land administration in the country.
The primary objective of the reformation drive is to digitalize land administration and promote efficiency and productivity in the space, he noted.
The Minister highlighted some of the digitally-driven initiatives introduced by the government to ensure that bottlenecks which hitherto served as impediments to a smooth administration system are removed.
He assured that the government wants to institute measures that will ensure that from the comfort of their homes and through the use of mobile phones, Ghanaians can access their land record.
“We are taking far-reaching measures when it comes to land administration in the country. For instance, since 1974, Ghana has not had spatial marking. We do not even have the contours of landed property in our country so the Lands Commission itself does not have records of various lands across our country. The implication of this are enormous”, he said.
“The Vice President chaired a meeting on the whole purpose of digitizing the economy and everything and it became apparent that if we are not able to digitize the records of the Lands Commission, we will not have a proper spatial mapping which is fit for purpose, all other digitization across the spectrum of our economy will be impossible. So this is one of one of the things we are seeking to do. We are digitizing and digitalizing the works of the Lands Commission to bring the commission up to speed and make it fit for purpose”, he added.
The other leg of the Ministry’s responsibility in the land administration is the protection and recovery of state lands.
Mr Jinapor noted that the protection of public lands is a matter that ranks highly on President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo’s list of priorities and will resort to any legal means possible to protect state lands.
He emphasized that the government holds the country a ‘fiduciary duty’ to protect the lands for future generations.
“We’re going to take an inventory of all public lands of our country and have a register for all public lands in the country. We are going to do in such a way that from every part of the country, you’ll be able to know that this or that parcel of land belongs to the state.”
He further disclosed that in line with the dictates of the new Lands Act, the Ministry and relevant agencies are working on recommendations for the ‘de-vesting of vested lands’.
He also charged staff of the Lands Commission to discharge their duties in line with the laws that concern their office.
Mr. James K. Dadson, the Executive Secretary of the Lands Commission provided education on the mandate of the commission and gave further information on some of the issues touched on by the Minister.
In a comprehensive presentation, Mr. James Dadson shed light on the various digital innovations introduced to the commission to guarantee a departure from the archaic way dealing with land-administration issues to a more expeditious, efficient and smooth way of dealing with issues.