Accra, Oct 25, GNA - Professor Dominic Kweku Fobih, Minister of Lands Forestry and Mines, said on Tuesday the Ministry was working out modalities to merge all public land sector agencies into one institution.

He said "Proposals have been prepared, through participatory processes, for the consolidation of all the land laws into one comprehensive law and the merger of the six public land sector agencies into one institution."

Prof Fobih, who was speaking at the Weekly Meet The Press Series, said the land sector was beset with many problems including the fragmentation of the land sector agencies leading to duplication of service delivery, indeterminate boundaries leading to persistent land disputes, multiple sale of lands, insecurity of title and tenure and the use of old and inaccurate maps among many other problems. He said the numerous problems often led to high transaction costs, limited accessibility and insecurity of tenure.

Prof Fobih said the Land Administration Project (LAP), which was ensuring that all the agencies came under one umbrella commenced in October 2003 and would run until 2008 with a focus on ensuring that the land administration system was fair, transparent, cost effective, efficient, client-centred and decentralized.

He said an inventory of 31 State acquired sites in Accra and 884 sites in the Central Region had been undertaken with the objectives of preparing appropriate policy responses to address outstanding issues on compulsory acquisition and compensation.