Senior Lecturer at the School of Law, University of Ghana, Prof. Kwame Gyan, has called for heightened focus on Ghana’s land resource to drive development in the country’s land sector.
Prof. Kwame Gyan made this call while addressing the Constitution Review Committee at the first stakeholder engagement meeting held in Accra on Tuesday, March 18, 2025. He attributed the issues surrounding land in Ghana to an ineffective compendium of laws governing land-related matters.
“The framers of the constitution, you wouldn’t fault them because hindsight may be wrong, but it is because we have the benefit of the development since they put together this constitution,” he said.
He also referenced the establishment of the Lands Commission under Article 258 of the constitution, mandated as the official body to exercise all constitutional provisions relating to land in Ghana. However, he noted that other bodies set up to regulate land issues under the commission were not given clearly defined mandates, despite being established within portions of the constitution.
“Parliament setting up, within six months of the coming into force of the constitution, other natural resource commissions—forestry, minerals, fisheries, and others as would be determined by parliament,” he outlined.
He stated that the absence of these details has left room for discrepancies regarding land ownership and the ratification of concession agreements.