Judge calls for simplification of land registry

Ho, Sept 1, GNA - Mr. Justice Paul Gyaesayor, the Volta Regional Supervising High Court Judge, on Monday called on stakeholders in land administration to make land title registration easy and affordable. He blamed the cumbersome processes and the expensive nature of land registration procedures for the myriad of problems, disputes and litigations bedevilling the sector.

Mr Justice Gyaesayor was speaking at the Volta Regional Consultative Outreach Programme on Land Administration Project (LAP) for land sector agencies.

He said parties to land litigations failed to respect the laws on land and courts' decisions giving rise to the high incidence of disputes and loss of lives and property.

Mr Gyaesayor said the courts are inundated with land cases, some as far back 34 years and more are filed on a daily basis.

He called for the modernisation and simplification of the language used in land indentures for easy administration and understanding. "Even members of the Bench and Bar sometimes find problems in the interpretation of indentures to their clients," he said.

Mr Kwasi Owusu-Yeboa, Volta Regional Minister, in a speech read for him, appealed to the government to restore confidence in the land market as a development strategy towards alleviating poverty in the long term. He called on land sector agencies to shun their parochial and selfish interests and work in a coordinated and concerted professional manner to promote efficiency and dispatch in land administration in the country. Madam Theresa Tagoe, Deputy Minister of Lands and Forestry, said the LAP is a long-term commitment by the government to enhance socio-economic growth by improving security of tenure, simplify the process of acquiring land, developing land markets and fostering prudent land management to be achieved in 15 years time.

She said these would be based on coherent and consistent policies and laws supported by appropriate institutional structures.

Madam Tagoe appealed to public land agencies, chiefs, family landowners and civil society to co-operate and collaborate to make the project successful.