The Minister for Lands and Natural Resources, Hon. Samuel Abu Jinapor has held a consultative meeting with the Management of Lands Commission to familiarize himself with their operations.
The meeting will also afford the minister the opportunity to ask for the Commission’s support for the ministry to deliver on its mandate.
Land, the minister noted, plays a vital role and knowing that everything sits on land makes it a very important sector that should be given the needed attention to improve the socio-economic development of the nation.
The Executive Secretary of the Lands Commission, Alhaji Sulemana Mahama was pleased with the courtesy call paid by the Minister and assured him that the Lands Commission was poised for action.
The minister touched on the need for the staff of the Commission to work hard to achieve the 30-day turn -around time for registering title to land and eschew all forms of negativity.
He urged the management to, as a matter of urgency, establish their offices in the newly created regions as the constitution enjoins them to.
The Minister entreated the Commission to speed up the digitization of all their manual records to ensure the Commission fully operates in a fully digital environment to bring more efficiency in land service delivery so that delays become a thing of the past.
Multiple sales of land, which he pointed out as a serious problem in the land market should be eliminated or brought to its barest minimum because it is a very disturbing phenomenon.
He has described the phenomenon of multiple sales of lands as what is fueling the menace of land guards, litigation, and protracted court issues.
He drew the Management’s attention to the redevelopment of Kumasi and other regional capitals noting that the Commission has a huge task in enforcing their roles as enshrined in the constitution.
Alhaji Sulemana took turns to take the minister and his team through an overview of the Lands Commission.
On recruitment of new staff for the newly created regions, he said teams have been deployed to check on the status of work so far regarding office accommodation and related issues on the operationalization of these offices, upgrade of the existing system intended to bring about the automation of the entire business processes.
Alhaji Sulemana also took advantage to inform the minister about some of the Commission’s challenges.
He named the challenges as poor conditions of service of the staff, old, defaced, and torn map sheets, and financial constraints which mitigate against the smooth work of the Commission.
The Minister and his team as well as the Technical Director (lands), Public Relations Officer, after the meeting, visited the Client Service Access Unit and the Records Unit of the Commission.
The minister also inspected phase 2 of the Greater Accra Regional office which is currently under construction.
Joining the minister were the Chairman of the National Lands Commission, Mr. Stephen Ayesu-Ntim, and the Greater Accra Regional Chairman, lawyer Alex Quaynor and other management members.