AN ANALYSIS OF THE CUSTOMARY LAND SECRETARIAT OF THE LANDS

ADMINISTRATION PROJECT IN GHANA

Issifu, Abdul Karim (M.Phil. Student) Institute for Development Studies, University of Cape
Coast, Ghana. Email: akissifu@gmail.com +233 243133069
2015

Abstract
It is captured on record that land administration in Ghana is governed by both customary
practices and enacted legislation. In spite of the seemingly perfect blend of customary
practices and formal land administrative machinery on the ground to ensure security of
tenure, the land sector in Ghana is beset with a myriad of problems. There is general
indiscipline in the customary land markets, which is characterized by land encroachment and
multiple land sales, weak land administration system etc. It is against this backdrop that the
Land Administration Project (LAP) has made attempts thereby establishing the CLS to help
solve the myriad of challenges facing customary land administration in Ghana. The basis for
the establishment CLS sought to strengthen the customary land management processes to
help bring sanity in customary land owning communities and the customary land market.
Since its inception CLS have chocked a number of successes including the enumeration of
properties and recovery of land records. Notwithstanding the achievement of the CLS, it is
also bedevil with certain challenges including the misunderstanding of the CLS concept
where a major problem facing the secretariat is that many Ghanaians have not come to
appreciate the essences of the CLS and its rationale for land management and development.
This is why, it is recommended that donor agencies, government and Civil Society
Organisations (CSOs) should help address some of the major challenges facing the CLS
thereby strengthening their support base and commitment to CLS in order to increase their
(CLSs) job satisfactions which will boost the staff morale and motivate them to efficiently
deliver.

Keyword: Land, Land Administration Project, Customary Land Secretariat

INTRODUCTION
It is almost hackneyed to say that land is the greatest resource that society has.
Therefore, access to land and secured land rights are instrumental to the socio-economic
development of a village, town/city, or nation. In Ghana, land is largely owned by private
groups and individuals under traditional arrangement. These groups own and control about 80
per cent of the land mass and basically determine who has access to what parcel of land and
for how long. Ownership of these lands is vested in traditional political institutions or
structures, headed by chiefs, clan and family heads or Tendamba; in the case of northern
Ghana, as the case may be. Technically, the heads of these institutions are supposed to hold
and manage land resources for and on behalf of the entire land owning group under
customary rules and regulations. The management of customarily owned lands has been the
preserve of these traditional political institutions with the state having an oversight regulatory
responsibility.
Land administration in Ghana is governed by both customary practices and enacted
legislation. There are two principal types of land ownership in Ghana. These are the public or
state lands and private or customary lands. Public or state lands are lands that have been
acquired by the state through its power of eminent domain. These lands are vested in the
president and held in trust by the state for the people of Ghana. Customary lands are vested in
chiefs and clan/families. Chiefs are recognised as traditional political heads of centralised
communities. Thus, land administration in the country covers a range of formal systems
established by state institutions to record rights to land and informal customary administered
systems that allocate, disposes and records land rights.
The formal system is regulated and managed by state land sector agencies. These
include the Lands Commission and its various divisions, and the Office of the Administrator
of Stool Lands (OASL). The informal system is manned by traditional political systems
regulated by customary laws. Two systems are identified under the informal land
administration system. These are the Stool/Skin land ownership and the family/clan or
Tendamba systems.
In spite of the seemingly perfect blend of customary practices and formal land
administrative machinery on the ground to ensure security of tenure, the land sector in Ghana
is beset with myriad of problems. These include general indiscipline in the land market which
is characterised by land encroachment and multiple land sales, use of unapproved
development schemes, haphazard development, indeterminate boundaries of customary lands,
a weak land administration system and conflicting land uses and time-consuming land
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litigation in courts. It is against this backdrop that the Land Administration Project (LAP) has
made attempts thereby establishing the CLS to help solve some myriad of challenges facing
customary land administration in Ghana.
In the next sections, I have discussed in details the evolution of LAP and CLS and
how it has come to help solve some of the myriad of challenges facing land administration in
Ghana. I have comprehensively explained functions of CLS, its objectives, the mandate, its
achievements, challenges and the way forward.

LAND ADMINISTRATION PROJECT (LAP)

In 1999, a new land policy was formulated in Ghana. It lays out the background,
overall policy objective, guidelines and actions to be envisaged in ensuring efficient land
administration. The policy aims at facilitating a rational and relatively orderly system of land
administration and wishes to address serious problems affecting the sector. This policy
represents an essential statement of principles by the government in ensuring transparency
and conflict free land administration hence the launching of Land Administration Project
(LAP). The land administration project is a theoretical paper for the development of land
administration. It was drawn up with assistance of the World Bank in 2000 (Drama Network,
2011). The document represents the first stage in implementing the principles presented in the
national land policy. The project outlines a proposal for long term support to land
administration in Ghana. The project goal is to consolidate and strengthen land administration
and management systems efficient and transparent service delivery, through reviews and
enactment of appropriate land administration laws and regulations, capacity building for Land
Sector Agencies (LSAs), land owners and relevant Non-governmental Organisations (NGOs),
and streamline business procedures within the LSA. The main objective of the program is to
reduce poverty and enhance economic and social growth by improving security of tenure,
accelerating access by the populace to land and fostering efficient land management by the
development of an efficient system of land titling, registration and administration
LAP is a long term plan of 15-25 years to improve land administration, thereby
reviewing existing laws on land, cutting cost and time of doing business as regards to land
title and deed registration, and decentralising land administration for an efficient, transparent
and sustainable land system in Ghana (Drama Network, 2011). The project, which has been
set-up in two phases, was to have fifty (50) CLSs dotted across the country with the Office of
the Administrator of Stool Lands (OASL) mandated to set up these offices. Under the first
phase of the project, thirty (30) customary land secretariats were established between 2003
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and 2010. The second phase of the Project- LAP-2, launched in September 2011, has
established ten (10) more CLSs to bring the number to forty seven (47); Greater Accra five,
Ashanti Region eight, Brong Ahafo five, Northern five, Upper East five, Upper West four,
Central four, Eastern region four, Volta region three, Western region four, a clear indication
that the project is poised to exceed its original target of setting up fifty (50) of such
secretariats by the end of the second phase in 2016 (Ministry Of Lands And Natural
Resources, 2011). In the next section, I have discussed in details the establishment of CLS, its
functions, achievement, and the failures.

COMPONENTS OF LAP
Basically, there are four major components of the project designed to help ensure successful
achievement of the project objectives. They include;

A: Harmonizing Land Policy and Regulatory Framework for Sustainable Land

Administration;
Revising policies, laws, and regulations for an effective, efficient land administration.
Strengthening civil courts to expedite resolution of land cases and developing
alternative land dispute resolution mechanisms.
Developing an inventory of all acquired State land and determining outstanding
compensation.
Policy studies.
Assessing land administration services currently provided by customary land
authorities.
Land policy development process.

B: Institutional Reform and Development

Restructuring public land agencies.
Decentralizing and strengthening land administration services.
Strengthening customary land administration.
Strengthening private land institutions.
Strengthening land administration and management training and research institutions.

C: Improving Land Titling, Registration, Valuation, and Information Systems;

Cadastral mapping.
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 Developing Cadastral and land information systems.

Establishing model land titling and registration offices.
Improving deed and title registration.
Land use planning and management.
Establishing a land valuation database.
Piloting demarcation and registration of allodial land boundaries.
Piloting systematic land titling and registration.

D: Project Management, Monitoring, and Evaluation;

Project coordination and management.
Human resources development.
Communication strategy.
Monitoring and evaluation (M&E) and impact assessment.

CUSTOMARY LAND SECRETARIAT (CLS)

The Land Administration Project sought to strengthen the customary land
management by establishing Customary Lands Secretariats (CLS) to help bring sanity into
the customary land market and the land owning communities at large. The CLSs are the
decentralised administrative units of customary land administration in charge of managing
customary land holdings and derived rights within their respective communities (Bugri,
2012). Their operations are governed by chiefs and heads of clans and families through the
Land Management Committees (LMCs). Prior to the establishment of CLS, the problem of
high illiteracy rate among traditional leaders and the lack of documentation and proper record
keeping created general indiscipline in the traditional land markets which was therefore
characterized by land encroachment and multiple land sales, haphazard development and
layouts, indeterminate boundaries of customary lands, a weak land administration system and
conflicting land uses as well as the time-consuming land litigations in courts. It is against this
backdrop that the CLS was established under the LAP to help bring improvements in the
customary land administration sector.
Bugri (2012) reiterates that the establishment of CLS will help improve management
outcomes like security of land rights to a greater extent. The obvious agenda has been to
attempt to devolve land administration to customary authorities. Hence the establishment of
the customary lands secretariats. However, I want to argue that the transfer of responsibility
from the management of stool lands to CLSs under the LAP as well as with the appropriate
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governance structures to assure institutionalized community-level participation and

accountability in the use of stool land, enough revenues would be generated that can help
promote not only national but also community development.

FUNCTIONS OF CLS
As part of the commitments to ensure sanity in land administration in Ghana, CLS performs a
number of functions.
These functions include;
Provision of information about the land owning community to the public.
Provision of land information to the public ownership, rights, use, etc.
Keeping and maintaining accurate and up to date land records.
Keeping records of all fees and charges associated with land grants.
Liaising with Plot Allocation and Town Development Committees to ensure that
development conforms to planning schemes/layouts or as agreed by the Community
at the local level.
Receiving all correspondence on behalf of the Land Management Committee.
Serving as the link between the land owning community and the public sector land
agencies, District/Municipal/Metropolitan Assemblies (MMDAs), Environmental
Protection Agency (EPA).
Serving as the link between an applicant and the Land Management Committee.
Preparing accounts of all income and expenditure.
Preparing periodic reports on all activities of the secretariat and promotes Alternative
Dispute Resolution (ADR) and keep records on land related disputes settled at the
local level through ADR. The above listed are not exhaustive of all the functions of
CLS.
However, the CLS cannot be discussed in isolation to the functions of the Land
Management Committees (LMC). In order to ensure effective administration and
accountability to the customary land owners, the CLS work under the direct supervision of
the LMCs of the various jurisdictions. The LMCs are constituted by the customary land
owners and membership includes representatives of the community plus other professionals
such as lawyers, surveyors, valuers, planners etc. Among the functions of the LMC are first,
exercising general oversight responsibility over the operations of the CLS. Second, offer
policy direction. Third, hire all categories of staff of the CLS and to fire any such personnel
where necessary. Fourth, determine salaries and allowances for CLS staff. Fifth, offer
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guidelines for determination of drink money and ground rent. Sixth, resolve land related
disputes through ADR and finally perform any other functions to be determined from time to
time by the customary land owning group.

ACHIEVEMENTS OF CLS
Even though it is too early to assess the full impact of CLS in customary land
administration and the intended linkages with the national level land administration
machinery, progress made in some of the pilot areas signals the potential of the CLS as a
solid foundation upon which sound national land administration systems could be developed.
The following are some of the achievements made so far:
First, recording of land transaction, currently, six existing CLS have recorded 8,000
land transactions. This development offers the customary land owners the opportunity to keep
track of all land grants emanating from their respective areas. It also enables them to link the
grantees to the public land sector agencies for official registration of the transaction.
Generally, the establishment of the CLS has significantly helped strengthen cohesion among
land management systems and ensured a greater level of accountability among these
institutions, while lowering cost of land transactions, easing the difficulties of information
flow, generate additional land revenue, making clear the procedures and processes of land
acquisition within the respective traditional areas among others (DFID, 2004).
Second, the enumeration of properties and recovery of land records; as part of the
process of building land database for the customary authorities, the LAP is facilitating
cataloguing of properties in the existing CLS areas, either urban or rural. The emphasis here
is on the dominant land use in the CLS area. For example, in Wassa Amenfi (in the Western
Region) - predominantly rural area, the CLS has catalogued about 16,000 providing both
feature and spatial information on the farms. The boundaries of these farms have been
surveyed in a process involving all persons sharing common boundaries. In other instances,
the CLS have catalogued townships, based on town development schemes, to establish the
rights and interests of community members. An important opportunity offered by this
exercise is the identification of the varied rights and interests in different areas and the threat
of diminution of customary freehold through the grant of leasehold title to the subjects of the
land owning group and the need for policy interventions. To address this issue, the project
has constituted a Land Rights Committee (LRCs) to develop appropriate instruments for
recording customary freehold interests.

Third, promoting an Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR); Land management

committees of the various customary authorities have taken up dispute resolution activities.
In some cases, ad-hoc committees have been constituted to settle boundary disputes to
facilitate cataloguing of properties including farmlands. In the Dormaa Ahenkro CLS (Brong
Ahafo region), the ADR has settled pending land cases withdrawn from the land courts. For
instance, the ADR under the CLS has settled a fourteen (14) year old boundary dispute
withdrawn from the courts by this Land Management Committee (Yankson, 2009). The
project has also engaged ADR specialist to help build capacity of the CLS in this regard. The
project also aimed at minimizing land related conflicts and litigation and to ensure that land
ownership and use contribute to poverty reduction. CLS, within this short period of its
inception, was able to settle peacefully 771 disputes countrywide through the use of ADRs
(Yankson, 2009). Unlike the court system which is adversary in nature, the ADR settled
disputes and brought the feuding parties together. Among others, the CLS have provided
readily accessible land services to the public, kept a database on land ownership, availability,
use and transactions which have multiple benefits in terms of eliminating conflicts, enhancing
security, broadening rights to land via formal transaction and generally encouraging both
national and international investments in land (Yankson, 2009).
Forth, harnessing economic potentials through sound land management practices;
through education and sensitization, the customary authorities are becoming increasingly
aware of the economic value of land and the need to adopt sound land management practices
in order to reap the full economic and social benefits of their land resources. Some of the
existing CLS have expanded the composition of their land management committees to
include professionals such as lawyers, real estate practitioners, land surveyors and planners
among others. Others have expanded membership of the LMC to include representatives of
District Assemblies, mining companies and timber firms operating on their lands and rural
banks. This intend to provide LMC with sound technical and financial expertise to strengthen
and sustain the CLS.
Fifth, the duplication of the land records of the public sector land agencies for the
CLS to ensure access to land information at the local level which facilitates the
administration of land at the local level. First, about 7500 records on lands within the Gbawe
CLS in Accra have been duplicated and digitized for storage at the local level. Secondly, the
idea to have chiefs and the traditional authorities keeping records and documenting land
transactions is a noble one under the LAP, which is a long term plan of 15-25 years to
improve on land administration which includes reviewing existing laws on land, cutting cost
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and time of doing business as regards to land title and deed registration, and decentralising
land administration for an efficient, transparent and sustainable land system for Ghana. The
project, which has been set in phases, was to have fifty CLSs dotted across the country with
OASL mandated to set up these offices. Under the first phase of the project, thirty seven (37)
customary land secretariats were established between 2003 and 2010. The second phase of
the Project- LAP-2, launched in September 2011, has established ten (10) more CLSs to bring
the number to forty seven (47); a clear indication that the project is poised to exceed its
original target of setting up fifty of such secretariats by the end of the second phase in 2016
(Ministry Of Lands And Natural Resources, 2011).
Sixth, facilitate greater awareness of land rights and responsibilities among the
vulnerable, women very poor landless families and tenants as well as facilitate greater
accountability in the use of land revenue and resources as well as the interface developed
between land registration agencies and the CLS which has reduced the frustration of
individuals seeking registration services and have led to a streamlining of processes and
procedures.

CHALLENGES FACED BY CLS

In spite of the successes chopped by CLS, it is still beset with certain challenges. Among the
key challenges include;
First of all, misunderstanding of the CLS concept is a major problem facing the
secretariat as many Ghanaians have not come to appreciate the essences of the CLS and its
rationale for land management and development. This is attributed to the fact that the
government has not done enough work to educate the public about the essence of the CLS.
This in effect has led to a non-cooperative between the majority of landlords and the
secretariat where many landlords lease lands without consulting the CLS for directives as
well as the refusal of some landlords to even attend CLS Meetings. The key issue is that local
people are not educated enough by government to own the project. This is why Ampadu
(2013) contend that whether the LAP through the CLS will be able to deliver its mandates
and achieve success will greatly depend on the extent to which the chiefs and other
community and land owning leaders are able to capture and dictate the operations of the CLS.
Secondly, the issue of inadequate funding is another problem facing the secretariat.
CLS being one of the few agencies created to promote land management sanity in the country
are constrained financially to adequately carry out its daily responsibilities. Inadequate
funding has caused the CLS not to employ skilled personnel and also to furnish their offices
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and places of work because there is no financial resource to cater for that hence making them
unable to function right.
Also, CLS is faced with several equipment and logistics challenges. There are
inadequate equipment and training facilities to empower the secretariat to work effectively
and efficiently. They have inadequate vehicles to transport them to and from the fields to
carry out monitoring and evaluation exercises. More so, there are a few staff employed
meanwhile these limited staffs are not well resourced with the adequate skills and
experiences to enable them to be effective enough to contribute to productivity.
Furthermore, there is another challenge of unspecified roles and responsibilities
towards the functioning of the office. LAP argues that the CLS is for the community. But
who is the community? It is true that a number of stakeholders could play a role to get the
CLS functioning but who does what? And who takes the lead in organizing these
stakeholders? These questions have become a problem that needs to be answered.
Besides, lack of formal reporting and communication structure is another problem
faced by CLS. The question of who should the CLS report to is a problem that needs an
immediate answer. Currently there is no official line of reporting and communication
channels and the challenge is that whoever needs any information uses contacts with the
staffs to get the information. However, this information is not coordinated to give a proper
overview of events. Finally, the problem of inadequate revenues and poor staffing as well as
the lack of the appropriate responsibility towards staff of the CLS is another big challenge
facing the CLS. There is no formal appointment to the staff and any standing salary, etc. The
question of who their employer is needs to be answered.

THE WAY FORWARD

First of all, government through the Ministry of Lands, Forestry and Mines should
provide vehicles and other logistics for CLS to operate effectively and to be able to carry out
field work and site inspection promptly where necessary.
Secondly, donor agencies and government through the Ministry of Local Government
and Rural Development should empower CLS at the local levels with adequate offices and
accommodation to help avoid lateness and absenteeism since most of the staff resides in far
areas. Donor agencies and government should support CLS thereby providing adequate
funding for the CLSs internal growth and development through partnership.
Again, the government and Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) should also assist the
CLS thereby strengthening their support base and commitments to increase job satisfactions
10

of CLSs which will boost the staff morale and motivate them to efficiently deliver whereas
the Lands Commission should effectively and formally build CLSs into the LA system.
Furthermore, establishment of future CLSs should be demanddriven and establish
criteria should be adhered to so that adequate funding can be internally generated to keep the
secretariat running. Above all, government should encourage adequate recruitment of more
skills personnel who are well endowed with development planning skills as well as
encouraging traditional authorities should to take ownership.

CONCLUSION
In Ghana, land is largely owned by three groups; customary owned 78 per cent,
government owned 20 per cent and 2 per cent on a partnership basis between governments
and customary land ownership (Larbi, 2008). It is captured on record that land administration
in Ghana is governed by both customary practices and enacted legislation. In spite of the
seemingly perfect blend of customary practices and formal land administrative machinery on
the ground to ensure security of tenure, the land sector in Ghana is beset with a myriad of
problems. There is general indiscipline in the customary land markets, which is characterized
by land encroachment and multiple land sales, indeterminate boundaries of customary lands,
a weak land administration system and conflicting land uses and time-consuming land
litigation in courts.
It is against this backdrop that the Land Administration Project (LAP) has made
attempts thereby establishing the CLS to help solve the myriad of challenges facing
customary land administration in Ghana. The basis for the establishment CLS sought to
strengthen the customary land management processes to help bring sanity in customary land
owning communities and the customary land market. Since its inception CLS have chocked a
number of successes including the enumeration of properties and recovery of land records.
Notwithstanding the achievement of the CLS, it is also bedevil with certain challenges
including the misunderstanding of the CLS concept where a major problem facing the
secretariat is that many Ghanaians have not come to appreciate the essences of the CLS and
its rationale for land management and development. This is attributed to the fact that the
government has not done enough work to educate the public about the essence of the CLS.
This is why, it is recommended that donor agencies, government and Civil Society
Organisations (CSOs) can help address some of the major challenges facing the CLS thereby
strengthen their support base and commitment to CLS in order to increase their (CLSs) job
satisfactions which will boost the staff morale and motivate them to efficiently deliver.
11

REFERENCES

Ampadu, R. A. (2013). Finding the middle ground: land tenure reform and customary claims
negotiability in rural Ghana. Research School for Resource Studies for
Development, Netherlands.
Bugri, J. (2012). Sustaining customary land secretariats for improved interactive land
governance in Ghana. World Bank Conference on Land and Poverty, Washington
DC.
DFID, (2004). Project memorandum: Ghana land administration project institutional reform
and development: Strengthening Customary Land Administration. Accra, Ghana.
Drama Network (2011). Training of trainers manual for the Customary Land Secretariats.
Larbi, O. (2008). Compulsory land acquisition and compensation in Ghana: Searching for
alternative policies and strategies. FIG/FAO/CNG International Seminar on State
and Public Sector Land Management, Verona, Italy.
Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources (2011). Land Administration Project. Phase II.
Ubink, J. M. and Quan, J. F. (2008). How to combine tradition and modernity? Regulating
Customary Land Management In Ghana Based on Land Use Policy 25 (2), p. 198213.
Yankson, P.W.K. (2009). Land rights and vulnerabilities in the Kete Krachi pilot customary
land secretariat area. Final Report, Department of Geography and Resource Development,
University of Ghana, Accra.

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