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Sunday, September 15, 2013

State of Otumfuo's Lease Documentation Project

In Kumasi, the custom is that when caretaker chiefs allocate land a paper which has come to be known as an allocation paper is issued to landowners as evidence of the sale. However, land allocation papers are considered incomplete unless endorsed by the Asantehene. To receive such endorsement one must start the process to convert the allocation paper into a lease. This is called the lease documentation or land registration process.

Conversion of allocation papers into leases is very important because in a recent Supreme Court of Ghana judgment in Boateng (No. 2) v Manu (No. 2) SCGLR [2008] it was held that allocation papers represent the initial process to evidence that land has been acquired by an individual or corporate body. However, an allocation paper by itself cannot represent the fact of land acquisition. Justice William Annam Atuguba has said that he knows of no law which mandatorily requires an allocation paper in the sale of land.

The position of the Supreme Court on allocation paper is premised on three main reasons. Firstly, an allocation paper does not state the nature of the acquisition, i.e. whether it is a lease, a sale, a pledge, mortgage, a gift, etc. Secondly, the duration of the acquisition is not specified on the face of the allocation paper, and lastly, allocation papers do not give details of the extent of the land acquired. For these, the Court has held that allocation papers can only show that some transaction had taken place to in which the owners had purported to give some land to an individual or corporate body but allocation papers per se cannot pass title. The landowner will thereafter proceed to have it converted in a lease which will have to be registered at the Lands Commission.

For these reasons, allocation papers are often not accepted by banks and financial houses as security for loans. The value of the building on the land though may be substantial but it remains unacceptable as security if title to that property is derived from an allocation paper. Lease documents are desired. However, to procure a lease on a piece of land, landowners must first submit their land allocation paper to the Asantehene’s Lands Secretariat for endorsement by the Asantehene. Thereafter a lease is prepared, executed and registered at the Lands Commission.

I do not advocate this line of thinking. I think allocation papers are valid land documents properly procured under customary law provides by article 11 of the 1992 Constitution of Ghana. Since I am here not arguing about these points, I will not dwell much on this issue. However, it is the failure of public land administrators to recognize land allocation papers as valid land documents that why it has become important that every landowner convert his or her allocation paper procured under customary into a lease.

Due to the cost involved, the time it takes and the complex and cumbersome nature of the land registration process, most land owners are not motivated to register their land. Several efforts by government such the Land Administration Project (LAP) over the years to reduce the cost, time and complexity of land registration in Ghana have to date achieved little success. Today, it is common to find corruption at the lowest and the highest echelons of the land agencies. From desk to desk, one must pay the way to get a piece of land registered. What is even shocking is that, after such bribes, the process of land registration still moves like an injured-tortoise.

In September 2012 the Asantehene’s Lands Secretariat (ALS) went on Radio and TV inviting landowners to come and register their land. One these media platforms, land owners were assured that that the cost of registering would be cut by 70%. The period it took to register a piece of land would be reduced to three months. And the physical presence of landowners in the entire process would also be a thing of the past.

The landowning public greeted the news with a great sigh of relief. One by one, day by day, they thronged to the Forecourt of the Manhyia Palace to convert their allocation papers into leases. What happened during the last three weeks to the end of the project was unprecedented. Thousands of landowners besieged the project. They were more eager to register their title to land before the project expired. But it was expected. Ghanaians are last-minute people. They literally begged to submit land documents for registration.  As a result, the project period was extended for another three months. Despite this, the ALS became choked with several landowners craving to process their land documents for lease. At the end of the day, over 15,000 applications had been received. Pressure mounted on land officials working there. And this slowed the process further. People tried to bribe their way through the process. And it worked.

From September 2012 to March 2013, the ALS reduced drink money charges by at least 70%. Land owners were not required to go through the normal complex, cumbersome process of land registration. Over one hundred young university graduates were employed to do that. Over 15,000 applications for lease were received.

The promise to produce leases in three months could not be fulfilled. Most people then began to complain of the same old problems about delays in land registration process. What the public did not know was that behind the media dressing was a considerable number challenges the Lease Documentation Project faced. On 2 April 2013 I met a young land economy graduate at the Manhyia Palace. I had first met him when he was doing his National Service at Lands Commission. He had been recruited to assist in the project. I asked him about some of the difficulties that the project was facing and he did not hide the truth from me.

There was too much media window dressing. The public was deceived. They were made to believe that leases could be acquired in three months. Yes it could be done. But the number of applications that was received and the problems the project faced, six months is even too short a time to complete all the lease applications. As we talk now, the three months has expired. The three months extension that was given is now left with two weeks to expire. Yet not a single lease document prepared under the project has come out of the registration tunnel. Over fifteen thousand people have submitted their allocation notes and site plans for processing. Out of this, less than twenty is receiving positive attention.

There are planning, technical and human resources problems facing the project. Let us start with planning problems. There are certain areas in Kumasi where there no existing planning layouts. Article 267 (3) of the 1992 Constitution, provides that no stool land is to be sold, developed or registered unless the Lands Commission has certified that the sale or  development conforms to layout drawn up and approved by the planning authority for the area. Thus, the ALS, by law, requires the LC give such certification on individual plots to begin preparation of lease. Once Lands Commission does not grant such approval, any effort to acquire lease will hit a dead end. Unfortunately, the LC cannot certify any plot which lies in area which does not have an approved layout. This has caused the processing of many applications under the project. My investigations shows more than thirty per cent of lease applications made under the project are beset with layout problems. Leases for such plots cannot be processed.

Secondly, some land allocation papers presented by landowners were found not to be genuine. Such allocation papers had been issued by illegitimate persons. One would think that since this matter involves chiefs the chief for the areas must be made to issue a fresh and genuine one for the landowner. But the question arises at to whether the landowner is to pay the price of the land to the chief since it was not the chief who took the initial purchase price.

Thirdly, there were some landowners whose title to their land could not be traced sequentially in relation to the documents they possessed. That is there were gaps in their root of title. In such cases, the land might have changed hangs several times but there were no documents to back such transactions. This made it difficult to process such applications. Last but not the least, there were instances where there were existing transactions affecting some of the land. This meant that the land had already been sold and registered in favour of a person other than the one who sought to register land anew. These problems continue to face the project.

Despite these challenges, I think project has established one thing. Landowners would be eager to register their land if land registration would be made cheap, simple and less cumbersome. However, the current situation does not encourage people to register their land. 

To be continued....