Mr Elvis Afriyie-Ankrah, Deputy Minister for Local Government and Rural Development, says the government is undertaking interventions to strengthen land administration and management systems for efficient and transparent land service delivery.

He said the government was also deepening the decentralisation process through the composite budget system and other interventions to make the Metropolitan, Municipal and District assemblies (MMDA) more resourceful to undertake proper spatial planning activities.

He said this on Wednesday in Accra at a forum dubbed ‘Permit and licensing Regime in Ghana’, organised by the Ghanaian-German Economic Association.

Mr Afriyie-Ankrah said a comprehensive final draft on National Urban Policy in conjunction with the ministries, departments and agencies which had been submitted to cabinet for consideration and approval.

He said there was the need to undertake a realistic appraisal of the status of the country’s permit and licensing system and prepare strategies to benefit the people and investors.

Speaking on the topic ‘Effectiveness of Zoning Laws in Ghana’ he said Act 462 and 480 of the zoning laws in the country mandated the MMDAs to prepare structure plans and local plans with proper zoning to guide growth and development of human settlement.

Those plans are subject to approval by the planning authority which becames a legally binding document.

He said land use zoning in the country had become ineffective due to weak enforcement mechanism at the MMDAs level and the lack of proper integrated planning at the national and local levels.

Mr Charles Kotey, Metropolitan Coordinating Director at the Tema Metropolitan Assembly, said the statutory planning committee of TMA was responsible for the issuance of development or building permits adding that the technical sub-committee of the planning committee met every week to vet development applications or inspect sites for which the development was intended.

Mr Joseph Akotia, Acting Monitoring Manager at the Ghana Free Zones Board, said the board was established to provide a one-stop service centre, facilitate, regulate and monitor activities for the free zones investors.

Mr Akotia said other functions of the board include granting licenses to applicants examined and recommend for approval, agreement and treaties relating to the development activities of the free zone.