Lands Commission to use auto maps to address land acquisition challenges

Ghana is preparing to roll out auto photo maps to serve as a basis for the digitization of the lands in the country.

The country’s capital, Accra has already been scanned and is undergoing digitization.

According to the Lands Commission, the land digitization forms part of efforts to address the challenges associated with acquiring and owning land in Ghana.

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Over the years, Ghana has put in place several strategies to improve land registration system and property map index which form key components of land administration.

However, the land market in Ghana is still plagued with issues of land title insecurity, encroachment of public lands, multiple sale of residential lands, high property registration cost and general land market indiscipline and violence which sometimes sadly results in death.

Speaking at the launch of a report to address the challenges to property registration in Ghana, organised by Policy think tank IMANI Africa, Head of Special Projects at the Lands Commission, Dr Benjamin Quaye outlined the initiatives adopted to address the challenges of land acquisition in the country.

“Looking at the challenges that are happening in the land sector now, the first thing we want to do is make sure we map the whole country.

“Since 1974 we have not mapped the country, so we are going to map the country with what we call auto photo maps to provide the base maps for the entire country and this will serve as a base for the digitization of the entire country,” he stated.

He further indicated his outfits’ readiness to carry the digitization exercise nationwide when resources are available.

“As we speak all the manual physical maps in the Greater Accra Region have been scanned and are being digitized. We are trying to focus on four key districts, what you call registration districts in Accra and Tema, to test the system.”

He added, “We are just waiting on the resources to make it a national exercise. We believe this will go a long way in helping address some of the issues in land acquisition.”

Source: www.ghanaweb.com