Jinapor promises robust land administration anchored on transparency

The Minister of Lands and Natural Resources, Samuel Abu Jinapor, has reiterated the Government’s unwavering commitment to build an efficient and functional land administration anchored on transparency and integrity. 

He thus highlighted some measures and policy interventions being rolled out by the Ministry through the Lands Commission to achieve the set objectives. 

The Lands Commission, for instance, he said, rolled out the Enterprise Lands Information System, which enabled it to migrate some of its operations onto the portal so that individuals could undertake search, systematic recording, drones being employed in surveying and mapping to produce accurate georeferenced and efficient orthophoto mass to support land title registration and facilitate the preparation of local planning schemes. 

Mr Jinapor stated that land service delivery was being decentralised across the regions, creation of a national spatial database infrastructure while the digitisation and digitalisation of the lands records were ongoing to enhance the digital transformation efforts. 

Mr Jinapor said this at the opening of the 2022 National Land Conference in Accra on Wednesday, to deliberate on land legislation, land governance reforms and proffer innovative solutions to the myriad of challenges in the country’s land administration system. 

President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo opened the four-day conference held on the theme, “Leveraging National Land Policy, Legislation, and Institutional Capacity towards Sustainable Socio-Economic Development, which attracted policymakers, land economists, traditional leaders and civil society organisations. 

Mr Jinapor observed that the Ministry was conscious of the centrality of effective, strong and robust land administration to the country’s socio-economic growth and, was therefore, determined to pursue the goal of achieving an efficient land administration anchored on the principles of transparency and integrity. 

Mr Ebenezer James Dadson, the Executive Secretary of the Lands Commission, in his welcome remarks, highlighted the mandate of the Commission as embedded in the 1992 Constitution to formulate recommendations on national policy with respect to land use and capability. 

He said that responsibility required broader consultations to solicit the views and ideas of all stakeholders in the management of the country’s land resources. 

It was on that basis the Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources and the Commission in collaboration with the Department of Land Economy of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology and COLANDEF, a civil society organisation, organised the conference to create a platform to discuss policy options, experiences and foster high level support and ownership of interventions, to promote efficient land administration. 

Some of the topics tabled for discussion at the event include: The Political Economy for Land Policy and Land Governance Reforms, Land Administration and Innovative Methodologies, Surveying and Mapping- Innovative and Cost-Effective Techniques and Land Use Planning and Spatial Development including Land Reclamation Processes of Degraded Lands.