Accra, April 9, GNA - A bill to establish a new Lands Commission with all land agencies under it to make land transaction easy is currently before Parliament for consideration, Madam Esther Obeng Dappah, Minister of Lands, Forestry and Mines, announced on Tuesday in Accra.

Consequently, she said, negotiations for the construction of a new office building for the Land Agency have been completed. "The success of land administration in the country depends largely on an effective administrative set up at the local level," Madam Dappah explained at the meet-the-press series in Accra on Tuesday.

"For this reason, the Ministry would conduct a study and come up with recommendations for effective and sustainable management of the customary Land Secretariat now being established," she said. Presenting the performance of the land, forestry and mines sectors since 2001, Madam Dapaah said there was now some order in the administration of land since the previous system of fragmented land sector agencies with entrenched identities performing overlapping and duplicating functions had given way to an efficient and cost effective one-stop corporate organization that reduced time and cost of land registration.

She said about 32.7 per cent of the backlog of cases on land litigation at the courts had been cleared. Ten customary land secretariats, one in each region, had been established to reduce insecurity in land tenure and avoid multiple sale of land.

In addition, land banks for investments in various parts of the country had been identified, documented, published and information disseminated to provide ready access to land, the Deputy Minister said. Madam Dappah said the transaction cost and turn around time in title/deed registration have also been reduced considerably from 36 months to two months by the establishment of seven deed registries in Koforidua, Tamale, Sunyani, Sekondi, Bolgatanga, Ho and Wa in addition to the existing ones in Accra and Kumasi. She said the registry for the Cape Coast would be completed and inaugurated by the end of this month. Challenges being faced in the on-going reforms under land administration, the Deputy Minister said, include "how to ensure the sustainability of the customary land secretariats being established". She said she was worry about whether the traditional authorities managing these secretariats would continue to financially support the secretariats when the land administration project came to a close. These secretariats are now being supported by government and other development partners.