Deputy Minister: Stop land conflicts

The Deputy Minister for Lands, Forestry and Mines, Adjei Yeboah has called on all customary land owners to ensure proper documentation of land to avoid conflicting issues in their various communities.

He said this during the inauguration of seven customary land secretariats in the Greater Accra Region. The Minister emphasized that government had consistently demonstrated its commitment to strengthen customary land administration throughout the country to reduce the misunderstandings bordering on land ownership in the country.

The Minister said the idea of the customary land secretariat was to facilitate proper documentation of land rights, transactions and maintenance of advanced and accurate records which could be accessed by all interested persons at the local level.

He reiterated the numerous land conflicts and litigations in the courts which he said, were clear manifestations of failure of the land administration system, both at state and customary levels. 

He explained that with the establishment of CLS, a mechanism would be put in place to take care of the vulnerable people in the society to ensure peaceful environment for social and economic development in their respective traditional areas.

Adjei Yeboah assured the traditional leaders that government would periodically offer training and capacity building programmes for them on different aspects of land management to assist them in handling effective land issues. He believed the programme would maximize the benefits to be derived from good management of land, and encouraged all to embrace it.

He noted that their greatest wealth was the land they control and stand a chance of reaping a lot of land revenue which could be channeled to development projects for the benefit of the people in the various communities.

Some items were awarded to the various customary land secretariats from Greater Accra, Eastern, and Volta Regions to enable them work effectively towards achieving the goals of the secretariats. The items included motor bikes, computers, and office equipment, among others. These were to motivate them to give out their best in maintaining these secretariats.