Story: Mary Ankrah
A 17-MEMBER steering committee to oversee the implementation of the second phase of the Ghana Land Administration Project (LAP- 2) in the Greater Accra Region has been inaugurated.
The project seeks to consolidate urban and rural land administration and management systems for efficient and transparent land service delivery in the country.
The five-year project, which started in July, 2011 and due to end in June, 2016, would focus on mapping primarily in four regions namely, Greater Accra, Western, Ashanti and Northern regions.
The entire project is estimated to cost $72 million for the four regions, and donor partners include the World Bank/IDA that is supporting with a loan of $50 million, the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA), $15 million; the Government of Ghana, $5 million, while beneficiaries support with services amounting to $2 million.
The project is a continuation of LAP-1, which streamlined land administration institutions by the passage of the Lands Commission Act 2008, Act 767 which merged four land sector agencies into a single entity — the Lands Commission (LC) — and brought the title and deeds registries under one organisational unit — the Land Registration Division.
It also decentralised the Deeds Registry in all the nine regional capitals, effectively bringing the registration of deeds closer to clients with a reduction in time for delivery from more than 36 months to about three months.
The LAP-1 project equally accomplished the establishment of 37 customary land secretariats to facilitate the management and record keeping by traditional authorities of land allocations and transactions within their traditional areas.
In addition are the modeling of land use planning at three levels including preparation of spatial development frameworks; reduction in the backlog of land-related court cases; the testing of title registration and demarcation of boundaries of customary land through private surveyors; and the ascertainment and codification of customary land rights in 20 traditional areas.
Therefore, the LAP-2 project is intended to implement the key policy actions recommended in the Ghana Land Policy of 1999, to address critical issues militating against effective land administration in the country.
The LAP-2 project is, therefore, aimed at strengthening the gains made under LAP-1 by deepening the reforms, enabling the land sector agencies to be more responsive to clients, cutting down the cost and time of doing business and providing an enabling environment to reflect the objectives of an efficient and transparent service delivery.
Speaking at the inaugural ceremony in Accra, the Deputy Greater Accra Regional Minister, Mr Isaac Vanderpuiye, pointed out that while the Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources would be responsible for the overall management of the project, the steering project committee was vested with the responsibility to approve all work plans prepared by the implementing agencies through a national project coordinating unit.
Mr Vanderpuiye also indicated that the project would enable the Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA) to complete a street naming and house numbering exercise for the Ayawaso sub-metro for an amount of $3.86 million.
He emphasised that the maximum outcome of the project which focused on the four regions would not only benefit those regions but the entire country.
“The fact that four regions have been earmarked under the project for targeted mapping does not preclude any region from carrying out mapping under the project,” he added.
He observed that the inauguration of the Greater Accra Regional committee signified the actual commencement of the LAP-2 project in the region and, therefore, called on the committee to be dedicated and consider the fact that land administration was a paramount importance to the country.
In his presentation, the Monitoring and Evaluation Specialist of the LAP, Mr Nelson Adom, said the project would build on the momentum underway to transform the Lands Commission, the Office of Administrator of Stool Lands (OASL) and Town and Country Planning Department (T&CPD) into modern and efficient service providers.
He observed that the project would also help reduce land deed registration transaction from three months to a maximum of one-month period while title registration would reduce from seven months to a maximum of two months.
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