The Land Question: Political Economy of Land Banking in Ghana

Abstract

The Land question‖ is an interrogation of the politics of land administration and its associated conflictsissues in the process of appropriating land in sub-Saharan Africa in general and Ghana in particular. The central argument of this paper is that in pre-colonial times, land was not considered a commodity because it did not have an exchangeable value, in other words, it was neither owned by individuals nor meant for sale, instead, it was communally owned and the king or the chief remains the only custodian of the land. However, when colonial administration took control over Africa, two things happened. Communally owned land process became formalized and consequently gave impetus to administrative land (State lands) and traditional land (Stool lands, also known as Land Tenure System (LTS). And subsequently, land was commoditized or, for wants of a better word, land became a saleable commodity. Consequently, communally owned land otherwise refers to in this paper as Traditional Land Bank and Banking for the indigenous was, however, replaced by what this paper refers to as ―State-cum- Traditional-cum- Individuals Share equity‖. And surprisingly, land appropriation matters and its accompanied escalating conflicts bizarre had come to occupy center stage of land administration and appropriations discourses during and in post-colonial eras. Using peer reviewed articles, newspapers together with purposive in-depth interviews with stakeholders, traditional chiefs, land administrators, and individual land owners, this paper investigate the effectiveness of land administration and appropriation policy in Ghana. Findings revealed inconsistencies as a serious weakness of the existing land policy in Ghana and concludes that the emergence of commodification of land and its accompanied land appropriations turns to pose ominous challenge in the political economy of land acquisition and entitlement in the entire sub-Saharan Region of which Ghana is no exception. It recommends establishment of Land Banking system and to create land banks for easy and peaceful access to land ownership and usage. Also to serve as a recipe for land administrative and appropriating conflicts.