World Bank authorises financing for Ghana’s land reforms

A current release from Ghana’s country office has stated that the World Bank group has confirmed a 35 million U.S. dollars financing to support Ghana’s land administration project.

The release reiterated that the bank gave approval for the financing on 21st of November, to support efforts by the government of Ghana to boost services and efficiency in the Lands Commission.

The funding represents an additional support by the World Bank for the second phase of the West African country’s Land Administration Project (LAP2).

The World Bank stated that the funding will help improve the effectiveness of the Customary Land Secretariats which is an important aspect of land governance in Ghana where an estimated 80 per cent of land holders are under customary law.

It added that, it will also help complete the base map for Ghana with aerial photography for most of the country and support the rollout of the Ghana Enterprise Land Information System (GELIS) with additional digitization of land records.

Henry Kerali, World Bank Country Director for Ghana, Liberia and Sierra Leone said in the release that both the World Bank and the Government recognize that LAP2 has more to do to really impact the lives of ordinary Ghanaians.

According to him, the additional financing was being done, to ensure the completion of the LAP2 agenda, so citizens can see a real impact.

He is however hopeful that Ghanaians will receive better and faster services from both the Lands Commission and the Customary Land Secretariats and have more access to property and land information.