Government is restructuring the process of land acquisition, valuation and land records consolidation as part of plans to develop Ghana’s mortgage market and make land title registration more relaxed.

Vice President Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia who made this known after a familiarization visit to the Lands Commission Tuesday, said streamlining the system and consolidating records at the Lands Commission is part of the Akufo-Addo administration’s resolve in moving Ghana beyond aid.

“This is the year we have to consolidate. We have to consolidate all the records so that when you sit at home, and somebody brings you a land that you should buy, you can go on your computer and find out who actually owes the land,” he said.

According to Dr. Bawumia, once the digitalization and consolidation of records is done, there is no need for an individual who is to register his or her land to go to the Lands Commission to start the process again.

“You can go on your computer, pay your search fee and find who actually owes the land. It will make our lives very very easy and it will allow the mortgage market to develop in this country. There is no modern economy that works without a well-developed mortgage market and this is where we want to bring change in Ghana,” he emphasized.

Dr Bawumia made known governments resolve to bring changes into the system by ensuring records across all the land agencies are digitalize.

At the recent 21st National Banking Conference organized by the Chartered Institute of Bankers in Accra, Dr Bawumia promised that the next phase of digitization in 2018 will occur in the land sector.

This, he said, will promote transparency and efficiency in land administration and ease the bottlenecks associated with land registration in Ghana.

Dr. Bawumia deliberated on how a mortgage market could be developed without being able to ascertain a title to 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 digitalized.