The Administrator of Stool Lands (OASL), Dr Gad Asorwoe Akwensivie, has said it is important for customary landowners to complement traditional land management systems with modern administrative practices due to growing pressure on land resources by commercial development and population growth.

Therefore, he said traditional authorities must embrace Customary Land Secretariats (CLS) as a tool to improve land governance, reduce land disputes and promote sustainable development.

He said CLS were specialised offices established by traditional land owning communities and managed by people within the communities, stating that the success of the secretariats largely depended on their leadership and commitment.

He said this yesterday at a stakeholder conference on CLS for chiefs in the Greater Accra Region. The conference, organised by OASL and the Lands Commission, was to discuss ways to strengthen customary land administration in the country.

Dr Akwensivie expressed the OASL and the Lands Commission’s commitment to continually providing technical support, training and guidance to ensure the effective operation of the secretariats.

Among the functions of CLS, he said were to keep and maintain up to date records of land transactions, serve as link between the land owning stools and public land sector agencies and provide information about land availability to prospective developers and investors.

It is also to promote Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR), help in revenue management and educate the public on land ownership and other land issues.

The conference was on the theme: “Towards Improved Customary Land Administration for Stools, Families and Clans”.

It was attended by chiefs, family heads, clan leaders and officials from land sector agencies.

Capacity building

Dr Akwensivie said a key innovation in the Land Act, 2020 (Act 1036), which was the recognition and promotion of CLS was to provide administrative support to customary landowners to address issues such as multiple land sales, poor documentation, encroachments, boundary disputes and challenges in tracking land transactions.

To further build the capacity of traditional authorities, he announced that the OASL in collaboration with the University of Professional Studies, Accra (UPSA), had developed a short course on customary land administration and ADR.

He said the first training programme would be held from August 24 to 29, and encouraged chiefs and other customary land administrators to participate.

Land Act

Speaking on land administration, the Acting Deputy Executive Secretary in charge of Operations at the Lands Commission, Raphael Hokey, urged traditional authorities to strictly comply with the Land Act, saying that the law criminalised the activities of land guards, an offence punishable by a prison term of between five and 15 years.

He said the Act also placed a fiduciary responsibility on chiefs, tendanas, clan heads and family heads to hold customary lands in trust for their communities rather than for personal benefit.

He cautioned that they were prohibited by the Act from granting leases exceeding 50 years to non-Ghanaians, leasing land to minors and engaging in multiple sales of the same parcel of land.

He further urged them to register their lands with the Lands Commission, undertake proper surveys before transactions and ensure developments conformed to approved planning schemes.

Bridge gap

The Greater Accra Regional Lands Officer, Dr Pius Basoah Asumadu, described the CLS as a game changer that would bridge the gap between formal and customary land administration in the country.

He, however, stated that the disregard for approved planning schemes had contributed to flooding in parts of Accra, stressing that professionally managed CSL would help address such challenges through closer collaboration between government institutions and customary landowners.