LAP RECORDS 1,333 LAND TRANSACTIONS (PAGE 23)

STORY: Kwame Asiedu Marfo, Takoradi

THE Customary Land Secretariat (CLS) established under the Land Administration Project (LAP) at Wassa Akropong in the Wassa Amenfi East District in the Western Region,recorded a total of 1,333 land transactions last year.
The secretariat has also enumerated 15,000 farmers in the area and undertaken digitisation of manual data on land transactions.
It is now collaborating with Samartex Timber and Plywood Company Limited located at Samreboi in the Wassa Amenfi West District and the German Technical Co-operation (GTZ) to enumerate about 200 tree grower farms.
A Thematic Facilitator of the Customary Land Administration, Mr George Nti, announced this at a sensitisation workshop on the establishment of the CLS for chiefs and land owners in the Western Region in Takoradi.
He said the secretariat was undertaking spatial data capture on land transactions as well as the resolution of land related conflicts pertaining to farm boundaries, indigenes and settler/migrant farmers.
Mr Nti said the chiefs and people in the Wassa Amenfi Traditional Area had been very supportive of the activities of the secretariat. He said land documentation, especially among tenant farmers, had been improving, while there had been public-private support for the activities of the CLS.
Mr Nti added that there was a provision of databank on lands for investment in farming.
He mentioned some of the challenges confronting the existing secretariats as meeting recurrent cost of the secretariat staff salaries, maintenance of equipment and funding of activities.
Others, he said, were the commitment of the land owners , ownership and the sustainability of the secretariats.
Touching on the way forward, Mr Nti said the Customary Land Administration would undertake sensitisation and educational programmes in existing and potential Customary Land Secretariats and also identify viable as well as sustainable sources of funding for the secretariats.
According to him, it would re-strategise the process of support to land owners in setting up land secretariats in the future.
Mr Nti explained that the secretariats were simple structures for local land management and were community owned and locally manned. He stressed that their survival depended largely on land owners and key stakeholders in the land industry. Mr Nti further stated that the CLS were vital structures for the implementation of the Land Administration Project’s support for customary authorities in the management of their lands.
He mentioned the key functions as record keeping and management, linking landowners to land administrators and users.
Mr Nti pointed out that the overall benefits to the communities included peace building and promotion of community development.