One
of the major obstacles to instilling investor’ confidence in Ghana is land acquisition
and security for local and foreign businesses.
Land utilization in line with modern day planning and
the complexity of land ownership pose a tough challenge to stimulate the socio-economic
development agenda of the country.
To
help improve the situation, traditional authorities in the Ashanti region have been
sharing knowledge and experience in land administration at the ongoing training
on “Service
Management and Leadership for Traditional Authorities”.
Model
II of the programme, run by the Osei Tutu II Centre for Executive Education
and Research (OTCEER) in Kumasi, is focused on ‘ICT and Land
Administration’.
Asakore
Mamponghene, Nana Boakye-Ansah Debrah, who is leading the session, has noted
that the application of information communication technology should facilitate the
mapping up of stool lands for development purposes.
He
has implored chiefs to engage professional planners in land data management within
their jurisdiction and ensure they are not swayed to arbitrarily change their
plans.
“When
you plan that this area can be used for housing, this area can be used for
farming or industry, you just stick to your planning principle and you don’t
change it”, he said. “We’re teaching ourselves how someone has done it and how
it’s been successful”.
Nana
Boakye-Ansah cited his community as an example of how planning can lead to development
and promote peaceful co-existence.
“There
has never been double allocation in my area and revenues that come from the
sales of lands are distributed equally; there is transparency and because of
that I don’t have people with my people and I don’t have problem with the
outsiders”, he stated.
The
first batch of 30 chiefs drawn from the Ashanti Regional House of Chiefs is being
exposed to innovative ideas in the discharge of routine duties in their
communities.
The
programme was launched last month with the aim to enhance the role of
traditional institutions in the country’s socio-economic development.
Head
of the OTCEER, Nana Otuo Acheampong, has exposed the chiefs to the World Bank’s
2013 report: “Growing
Africa: Unlocking the Potential of Agribusiness”.
According
to the report Africa’s farmers and agribusinesses could create a
trillion-dollar food market by 2030 if they can expand their access to more
capital, electricity, better technology and irrigated land to grow high-value
nutritious foods.
Nana
Otuo noted that chiefs as custodians of land can help put the uncultivated land
resources to productive use.
The
four-modular programme is funded by the China Europe International Business
School (CEIBS) – covers service management and innovation, leadership and land
administration, contemporary issues in leadership and financial management for
chiefs as leaders.
Director
of Programmes at the CEIBS, Prof. Mathew Tsamenyi is enthused at the interest
of the chiefs to translate the acquired knowledge into action.
“At
the end of it all, what we’re hoping for is to have different roles for
traditional institutions as partners in development and we’ll be able to transform
areas without necessarily relying on international donors or the government to
come and do it for them”, he observed.
There
is international interest in the programme as people begin to understand that the
traditional institutions can be used as an alternative vehicle to deliver
development goods, he said.
The
programme would be run for chiefs and queen mothers in all ten regions of the
country and hopefully extended to other African countries.
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