Lands Commission demands $250m to digitize operations

Chief Executive of the Lands Commission, Sulemana Mahama has said his outfit will require a minimum of US$250million to completely digitize the institution.

According to Mr Mahama the huge limitation with budget flows is hindering the commission from carrying out any major development.

Speaking at a capacity building workshop held in the Central Region, under the theme “enhancing business performance to support national development agenda,” Mr. Mahama indicated that the commission is looking for private capital to digitize all records of the commission.

“There is a very huge limitation with regards to budget flows and even when you have gotten funds, it is so limited for you to introduce the type of technology you want. It was only last year that clear indication was given that we are going to go through this in a massive way. Looking at the total conversion to digital environment and the capital flow, we need not less than a minimum of two hundred and fifty million dollars to be able to do this and that cannot be provided by our budget.”

He also said that Ghana has only 10% of the total country mapped which causes delays in land title acquisition.

Mr. Sulemana Mahama noted that the multiplicity of clans and families who claim ownership of land especially in the Greater Accra Region also contributes to the delay in registration of land.

“One was expecting that when the title registration process started in 1988, all the big land regimes in the Greater Accra Region would have been captured. This is to look at all those who have paramount interest like the allodia interest which is in the stool, clans and families before they start passing the individual ones but this was not done.”