President Akufo-Addo has appointed a lecturer with the University for Development Studies and a former District Chief Executive for Bole District under former president John Agyekum Kuffour administration Dr. Adams Sulemana Achanso as a member of the board of the Lands Commission.
The newly reconstituted board of 25 members were sworn into office by the president on Wednesday September 1, 2021, with aim of addressing land challenges in the country.
The Lands Commission was established under Article 258 of the 1992 constitution and the Lands Commission Act 2008 (Act 767) as a body corporate with perpetual succession and a common seal. It may sue and be sued in its corporate name.
The current Lands Commission, as part of public sector reform programmes and the land administration project, was substantially remodelled by Act 767 to increase its efficiency and effectiveness.
The legally constituted sub-departments of the Lands Commission are its survey and mapping division, land valuation division, land registration division and the division with responsibility for public and vested land.
The Lands Commission manages, on behalf of the government, public lands and any other lands vested in the President by the constitution or by any other law, as well as any lands vested in the Commission itself.
The Commission also advises the government, local officials and traditional authorities on the policy framework for developing particular areas of the country to ensure that the development of individual pieces of land is co-ordinated with the broader development plan for the area concerned.
Some of the other functions of the Commission are to formulate and submit to the government recommendations on national policy with respect to the suitability of land use or the capacity to do so; to advise on and assist in the execution of a comprehensive programme for registration of land title throughout the country; to establish standards for and regulate the survey and mapping of the country; to provide surveying and mapping services where necessary; to license practitioners of cadastral survey; and to provide land and land-related valuation services.
The 25-member board has Alex Nii Kweite Quaynor, a nominee of the president, as its chairman. The members of the board include James Ebenezer Dadson, the executive secretary of the Lands Commission; Daasebre Osei Bonsu II of the National House of Chiefs; Anthony Forson Jnr, President of the Ghana Bar Association; Jonathan Allotey Abbosey, Ghana Institution of Surveyors; Ama Kudom Agyeman, representing the Bono East Region; Dr Prosper Basommi Laari (North East Region); Alhaji Mohammed Abdul-Haq (Upper West Region); Yvonne Adoley Sowah (Greater Accra Region); Kofi Dankwa Osei (Eastern Region); Mama Dzidoasi I (Volta Region); Nana Obonbo Sewura Lupuwura II (Oti Region); and Kwame Kwaasi Danso (Central Region).
The other members are Dr Isaac Obirim Kofi Sagoe (Western Region), Samuel Kofi Abiaw (Western North Region), Nana Nsuase Poku-Agyemang III (Ashanti Region), Nicholas Lenin Anane-Agyei (Ahafo Region), Isaac Kwadwo Amankwah (Bono Region), Dubik Yakubu Mahama (Northern Region), Dr Alhaji Adams Sulemana (Savannah Region), Jonathan Anaboro Angme (Upper East Region), Dr Kwadwo Yeboah of the Land Use and Spatial Planning Authority, Reverend Kwadwo Nkrumah of the National Association of Farmers and Fishermen, Henry Kwabena Kokofu of the Environmental Protection Agency, and Benito Owusu-Bio (MP), Deputy Minister of lands and natural resources.
Meanwhile,the Savannah Regional New Patriotic Party Chairman, Alhaji Iddrisu Sulemana ( Prof Kalomonia) has also been appointed as a board member of Minerals Commission.
Source: Yagbonradioonline