Vice President of Ghana Dr Mahamudu Bawaumia has said categorically that vision of President Akufo-Addo that Ghana must develop beyond aid cannot be achieved if land registration process cannot be digitalized.

“Ghana will not be able to go beyond aid if we don’t tackle this land problem. There is so much land that people cannot even extract any equity out of it. At least 70 per cent of land in Accra do not have title” he said.

Dr Bawumia told the media after a familiarization tour at the Lands Commission that government is going to put in place the resources, personnel, the nation builder’s corps personnel to help the lands commission in the digitalization of all the land documents.

He said government will engage the Chief Justice on some legal decisions as well as some conflicting judgements across different courts on disputes associated with lands.

“There is very little space when you go to the agencies, records room and everywhere. The working environment is very poor and I think that this should be addressed” he added.

Dr Bawumia at the 21st National Banking Conference in Accra promised that the next phase of digitization in 2018 will occur in the land sector.

He said the focus of government’s digitization programme would shift to land registration and the process of acquiring a land title.

Dr. Bawumia added that the programme will promote transparency and efficiency in land administration and ease the bottlenecks associated with land registration in Ghana.

Dr. Bawumia wondered how a mortgage market could be developed without being able to ascertain a title to a land and described the situation as the bane of the banking and financial services industry.

He was optimistic that by the end of 2018, all land records in Ghana would be digital.”