Ghana will in the short to medium term have auto photo maps whereby the entire country will be mapped to serve as a basis for the digitization of the lands in the country.
Already all maps in Greater Accra have been scanned and are undergoing digitization.
This, according to the Lands Commission, forms part of efforts to address the long-standing issues associated with acquiring and owning land in Ghana.
A robust land administration system provides opportunities to unlock the productive capacity of land.
In countries where secured land title is guaranteed, land serves as collateral for small and medium businesses to access finance, as a medium of exchange and support broader community development goals.
Over the years, Ghana has implemented several strategies, legal frameworks and policies to improve land registration system and property map index which form key components of land administration.
In spite of decades of critical financial technical investments in land reforms, the land market in Ghana is still characterised by land title insecurity, encroachment of public lands, multiple sale of residential lands, high property registration cost and general land market indiscipline and violence which sometimes sadly results in death.
In an interview with Citi Business News at a report launch to address the challenges to property registration in Ghana, organised by Policy think tank IMANI Africa, Head of Special Projects at the Lands Commission, Dr Benjamin Quaye outlined the initiatives adopted to address the challenges of land acquisition in the country.
“Looking at the challenges that are happening in the land sector now, the first thing we want to do is make sure we map the whole country. Since 1974 we have not mapped the country, so we are going to map the country with what we call auto photo maps to provide the base maps for the entire country and this will serve as a base for the digitization of the entire country.”
“As we speak all the manual physical maps in the Greater Accra Region have been scanned and are being digitized. We are trying to focus on four key districts, what you call registration districts in Accra and Tema, to test the system. We are just waiting on the resources to make it a national exercise. We believe this will go a long way in helping address some of the issues in land acquisition.”
