Raphael Hokey
Head of the Lands Commission’s Regional Operations Unit, Raphael Hokey, has urged Ghanaians to look for corruption in the administration of customary lands, stating that the finger-pointing at the Commission is misplaced.
According to him, the Commission manages and controls less than five percent of the country’s lands, with the majority of the land in the hands of customary owners who dispose of or relocate them at their discretion.
Mr. Hokey told participants at a national expert forum in Accra yesterday that if there is corruption in land administration, the nation should look at the customary land area rather than the Commission’s management of less than 5% of state land.
“The Lands Commission strictly only manages state lands and we all agree that state land is less than 20%. Public lands, including vested lands are 20% but state lands are estimated to be about 18% and when you take out the roads, institutions, and projects which are not lands that can be allocated, you will come to a very small percentage, less than 5%.
“But you see that people’s concern is always about how the Lands Commission allocates these lands.
“I am not saying it should not be done properly, but I am saying that the size of the land which has more problems – people are duped, get into litigation – is mostly customary lands,” he stated.
The Land Commission chief continued, “The customary lands, which are over 80%, are in the hands of chiefs and family heads. That is where the trouble is.”
“Most often a chief has a huge tract of land as a result of inheritance. He is a royal and wakes up one day and the old one is gone and he becomes the chief, and that all the lands are available to him and starts allocating.
“He sees it as an opportunity to take onboard more wives because he wakes up one day and a lot of resources are available to him,” he noted.
Mr. Hokey said if the nation is able to put in a lot of guidelines and rules in place, and with the support of the traditional rulers, there will be sanity in land administration in the country.
The forum, which was on the guidelines for large-scale land-based investment in Ghana, was organised by the Ghana Integrity Initiative (GII).
Mary Awelana Addah, Executive Director of GII, asked participants to acknowledge the profound importance of land in shaping Ghana’s socio-economic landscape.
According to her, land is not only a vital economic resource, as recognised by the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), but also a cornerstone of heritage, identity, and livelihood for millions of Ghanaians.
She said the evolving dynamics of global food demands and economic development have ushered in a new era of large-scale land acquisitions.
“While these investments hold the promise of enhanced food production and economic growth, they also present a complex set of challenges, as documented by the International Land Coalition (ILC),” she pointed out.
As highlighted by the ILC, the GII boss said issues like corruption, unequal land access for women, and environmental sustainability concerns threaten to overshadow the potential benefits.
By Ernest Kofi Adu