Northerners express worry over indiscriminate sale of lands

Participants at a day’s forum in Tamale, on Wednesday expressed worry over the increasing rate at which lands in the Northern, Upper East and Upper West Regions are being sold indiscriminately to investors.

They noted that most of the lands are being sold as low as two dollars per hectare and leading some of the investors to buy as much as 100 hectares.

The participants who were drawn from diverse fields were contributing to a discussion on awareness creation and capacity building; alienation of communal lands and its implications on livelihood.

The forum was organised by the Northern Accelerated Intervention for Development (NAID), a non-governmental organisation in collaboration with Civil Society Coalition on Lands.

The multi-stakeholder forum was aimed at addressing appropriate procedures for land acquisition, registration and documentation as well as identifying specific policy gaps in safeguarding community interest in communal lands.

Mr Moses Bukari Mabengba in a speech read on his behalf indicated that bio-fuel which is renewable and has less emissions and environmentally friendly is gaining the attention of the public.

He said the need for bio-fuel has brought numerous challenges to rural and urban farmers including land alienation whilst environmental degradation and threats to food security had so put pressure on arable lands.

Mr Mabengba mentioned Kpachaa and Parishanaa-Yili in the Yendi Municipality and Makango in the East Gonja District as some of the places were bio-fuel is being cultivated.

He called on the Environmental Protection Agency and the Lands Commission to regulate the activities of the investors to ensure sanity.

Mr Mohammed Saani Iddrisu, Executive Director of NAID said there was the need for the Government through the District Assemblies to regulate land sales since the world’s population growth had put pressure on land globally.

Source: GNA