The Constitution placed a duty on the President to hold all state lands in trust for the people of Ghana and encroachment on these state lands must be a thing of the past, said the Minister for Lands and Natural Resources Samuel Abu Jinapor.
Mr. Jinapor, has thus advocated a total ban or a freeze on the granting of public lands for private individuals until further notice.
“I have a big appetite for a total ban or freeze on the grant of public lands until further notice”.
Speaking at staff durbar organized by the Lands Commission, an agency under the Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources, the minister said whereas the possibility of placing a freeze on granting of public lands for private use was being explored, the ministry would work with all stakeholders in the land value chain to protect state lands.
“I have made it clear to the Executive Secretary of the Lands Commission my position on this matter, and I want to state publicly that the protection and preservation of public lands is one that must be done responsibly”.
The minister stressed that the current situation where state lands were handled as though they were private property would no longer be countenanced.
He said the Constitution has clothed the President with the responsibility to hold all state lands in trust for the people of Ghana, and having been appointed as the Minister of Lands and Natural Resources, he had the responsibility to help the President to fulfill that mandate.
“Knowing the responsibility placed on me as the sector minister, I want to state that encroachment on public lands must be a thing of the past; we cannot continue on that path”.
Mr Jinapor urged the Lands Commission and its regional officers to implement reforms, including the digitisation of its services, to ensure effective and efficient land administration.
Meanwhile. At a separate ceremony to sworn into office the new Board of the Lands Commission, the President Nana Addo has charged the board to pursue the digitisation of the records of the Lands Commission aggressively.
According to him, most of the reforms needed to build efficient land administration in Ghana will be within reach of the nation if the country can move away from manual registration to digital registration.
“You must, therefore, work assiduously to ensure that the digitisation programme works. Our target is to ensure that title registration takes a maximum of one month, and, I dare say, the Ghanaian people will assess the success of your tenure based on how far this objective is achieved”.
