Lands Commission improves revenue by 12% in 2023
The Lands Commission increased its revenue by 12 per cent in 2023 compared to the previous 2022. The revenue raised was GH¢206,868,050.45.
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The year 2022 figure was GH¢174,086,675.61.
The Executive Secretary of the Commission, Benjamin Arthur, made this known last Friday during a briefing with journalists and other stakeholders.
He also gave the assurance that revenue target would shoot up pending the approval of a 15% proposal before Parliament.
Mr Arthur intimidated that even though 2023 was marred by a myriad of challenges, the gains made far outweighed the downs.
To keep the momentum going, he disclosed that the commission intended to strengthen the legislative and policy framework.
In view of that, he said that a consultant had been engaged by the commission to prepare legislative Instruments for the Land Act, 2020 (Act 1036) and the Lands Commission Act, 2008 (Act 767).
“The first drafts of the Commission have been completed by the Consultants and submitted to the Lands Commission for further stakeholders engagements. In response to the directive from the Hon Minister for Lands and Natural Resources, a Committee was set up to draft a policy on public land management and submitted to the Sector Ministry for consideration and approval,” he explained.
Mr Arthur further elaborated that once operational, the policy will guide the procedure and processes for the allocation and general management of state lands.
“Again, in line with the provisions of the Lands Act, 2020, Act 1036, and on the Minister of Lands and Natural Resources' directives, a committee was set up to make recommendations for divesting vested land,” he added.
Digitalisation drive
The Executive Secretary revealed that the Lands Commission (LC) as part of its digitalisation drive, had established a modernised land record management system.
The initiative, he said, was aimed at fast-tracking land documentation, includes scanning, geo-referencing, and archiving of existing records.
“The land-modernised system is expected to facilitate the retrieval of files for various purposes. The digitisation drive, he stated is expected to facilitate the automated workflow processes of the Commission,” he stressed.
Mr Arthur maintained that the system will see a facelift in improving maps and spatial data and enable the Lands Commission to render services using a variety of digital platforms, automate workflow processes of the Commission, decentralisation of services to augment the ICT infrastructure of the commission while retooling it by procuring state-of-the-art equipment, computers, servers, vehicles and develop online access to the commission.
The Executive Secretary was optimistic that the new system would facilitate a systematic recording/titling, verification which will speed up coverage and completion of land title records of the country.