Bawumia says LAP fails to deliver expected outcomes
Vice President Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia has called for public/private partnership to radically transform the country’s land administration system to bring efficiency.
The reliance on the manual way of doing things, associated with unreliable land records, undue delays in processing of land services, multiple land allocation and fraud could not continue.
He asked that investors and land administrators supported efforts at bringing about the required changes, through the investment of capital, innovative technology and expertise.
Vice President Bawumia was speaking at the “Market sounding conference on private sector participation in Ghana’s land administration reforms” in Accra.
He made reference to the Land Administration Project (LAP) implemented from 2003 to 2017, and said it failed to deliver the intended outcomes.
The structural challenges of land registry had remained unresolved.
It was against this background that the government would welcome public-private partnership arrangement to ensure that land title registration could be undertaken within seven days, instead of the current eight months period.
The meeting was organised by the Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources and brought together land experts and prospective investors from across 16 countries.
The goal was to explore the possibility of opening up land administration space for private sector participation.
The Vice President said the expectation was that prospective investors bring cutting-edge technology and equipment alongside their creative abilities in the land administration to improve land service delivery and turn around the economic fortunes of the nation.
He noted that the private sector was better placed to make the core skills and technology available for effective land administration for mutually rewarding outcomes.
He added that effective land administration was the bedrock and the anchor of any modernised economy.
“Our President is in a hurry to get things done to transform this economy in order to create shared prosperity.
Let us begin with the most fundamental of all factors of production – land, to engender rapid economic development.”
He gave the assurance that the investments and returns of prospective investors would be protected, “we will ensure the partnership will be rewarding to prospective investors who will come on board through public-private partnership arrangements”.
Vice President Bawumia announced that the government was in the process of securing orthophoto maps for the entire country to allow for easy tracking of lands.
Added to this was the massive digitisation drive in various public institutions, something vital for every modernised economy.
They were concentrating efforts on two areas in the land reforms – digitisation of land records, automation of business processes and decentralisation of the Lands Commission, and infrastructure for spatial data and spatial data management that would focus on the establishment and maintenance of continuous ‘operating reference stations’.
The Vice President said an efficient land administration regime would accelerate the government’s vision of “Ghana beyond aid” and actualisation of the industrial transformation agenda for socio-economic development.
Mr. John Peter Amewu, the Minister of Lands and Natural Resources, in his welcoming address, said no nation had made any headway without a clear and well-functioning land administration system.
“This government is fixing the land administration challenge and we will leave a lasting legacy, which will serve as a solid spring board for economic transformation for generation to come.”
Source: GNA