COLANDEF, Trust Africa confer with farmer cooperatives, traditional leaders on Land Act

Accra: COLANDEF, a non-governmental organisation, Trust Africa, a pan African organisation and the Ghana Land Sector Multi-Stakeholder Platform (LSMSP) have conferred with farmer cooperatives in the oil palm and cocoa sector and traditional leaders on the Land Act 2020(Act 1036).

The consultative meeting, with the Coordinating Committee, LSMSP of the Lands Commission, was to explain relevant sections of the Land Act and discuss recommendations for the draft Legislative Instrument (LI) being developed by the Lands Commission on the Land Act.

The meeting, the first in a series, brought together representatives from selected farmer cooperatives and traditional leaders from five regions and other officials of Lands Commission, Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources, and the Ghana Institution of Surveyors.

Among other objectives, the consultative meeting was to discuss provisions of the Land Act 2020 on customary land tenure and gather inputs for the development of regulations for the effective implementation
of the Act.

It follows a resolution after a Land Conference held in 2022 to ensure active participation of stakeholders in the development of the regulations for the Land Act, 2020.

Under the partnership with TrustAfrica, COLANDEF works with 10 Farmer Cooperatives in the cocoa and oil palm sectors by providing them with training on key concepts on land and relevant provisions in the Land Act 2020.

Also, COLANDEF works with 34 traditional areas across six regions under the Reclaim Sustainability Programme, providing training for traditional leaders, support in strengthening the institutional mechanisms for customary land administration while facilitating dialogue between traditional authorities and farmer cooperatives to resolve issues associated with customary land rights.

Nana Ama Yirrah, Founder and Executive Director, COLANDEF Land and Property Rights, said the Land Act, passed in 2020, was designed to address many of the land sector challenges in the country, including clarifying the different types o
f rights and interest in land among others.

She said legislations were accompanied with regulations to ensure proper implementation, and that the Land Act did not have such regulations necessitating the land Commission to spearhead the development of regulations of the Act.

The Executive Director said the inputs of the stakeholders were critical in the formulation of the regulations for the Land Act to further ensure sanity in land administration in Ghana.

An important aspect of the Land Act, she reiterated clarification of the different types of interests in land as land ownership in Ghana had been fraught with challenges, including multiple sales among others.

Nana Ama Yirrah said it was important for Ghanaians to be educated on the different types of rights and interest in land while pursuing the effort of documenting these different types of rights and interest to clarify ownership.

She said another useful aspect of the Land Act was the decentralisation of the land documentation system as the Act had
made it legal to have a Customary Land Secretariats in every traditional area to ensure land rights were properly documented to serve as evidence of transaction at the traditional level.

Mr Maxwell Adu-Nsafoa, Technical Director of Lands, Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources, said even though the Land Act had been in place since 2020, the regulations were now being developed.

He restated that the inputs of stakeholders in the land sector was key in the formulation of the regulations because of their interest in land, especially the farmers and traditional leaders.

‘…We will need their inputs to influence what will be stated in the regulation, reflecting their types of interests in land,’ he said.

Mr Adu-Nsafoa, also the Head of Operations at the Lands Commission, said a draft regulation had already been submitted to the Land Commission which was being reviewed with various stakeholders to come out with a final draft for consideration by parliament by the close of the year.

Mr Emmanuel Opoku Acheampong
, President, Boakoye Cooperative Cocoa Farmers and Marketing Union Limited, Asante Bekwai, said litigation on land at the local level continued to be a challenge, and that the consultative workshop was timely to nip the phenomenon in the bud.

Source: Ghana News Agency