The Okyenhene, Osagyefo Amoatia Ofori Panin has called for the review of Chapter 21 of the 1992 Constitution, to grant traditional authorities, the power to manage lands.
His call follows what he describes as the lack of proper accountability by various district assemblies on the revenues accruing from stool lands.
Presently, the constitution allows district assemblies access to 55 percent of all revenues accruing from stool lands while 25 percent is allocated to the stool through the traditional authority for the maintenance of the stool in keeping with its status and 20 percent to the traditional authority.
But speaking at the Annual Divisional Seminar of the Valuation and Estate Surveying Division of the Ghana Institutions of Surveyors in Koforidua, the Osagyefo Amoatia Ofori Panin expressed worry at the current situation and queried why the district assemblies have not been able to account for what they do with the money for the local people.
The seminar which is on the theme, “Challenges to efficient Land Management in Ghana,” will also focus on small scale mining and matters relating to stool lands.
Speaking at the same event, the Regional Coordinating Director Kumordzi Sambo, highlighted multiple transactions, environmental degradation and boundary disputes as some of the numerous challenges facing land management in Ghana which required urgent solutions to address.
Meanwhile the Regional Chairperson for Valuation and Estate Surveying, Maame Ama Edumadze-Acquah has advocated the need to ensure good and sustainable management of land for future generations describing it as the basis of all developments in the country.
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Source: GNA