Land remains a major source of death, litigation, and family disintegration in Ghana despite its huge economic growth and development potential, but a Centre for Democratic Development (CDD) Ghana Fellow believes the situation can be salvaged through bold structural reforms. Hene Aku Kwapong, who also serves as a board member of Ecobank, maintains that unless the country undertakes a comprehensive reset, land will continue to trap the economy in stagnation instead of powering growth.
In an extensive write up on the subject sighted by The High Street Journal, Kwapong notes that Ghana’s land system is “running on broken software,” where oral histories compete with family narratives, unregistered plots multiply, and chiefs or individuals act as landlords with wide discretionary powers. The results are costly cycles of disputes, double sales, fraudulent claims, and chaotic development that discourage investors and stifle job creation.
The CDD Ghana Fellow is proposing four powerful reforms aimed at turning land from a battleground into a productive national asset, aligning with the current government’s reset agenda. His proposals draw from successful land administration systems in Poland, Japan, South Korea, and Peru.
Kwapong advocates for a Universal Leasehold system that would remove land from the control of private allodial ownership. Instead, the state and stools would hold all allodial rights formally, while citizens and businesses secure long term leases. This removes the personal discretion that often fuels conflict and uneven access.
“All allodial rights should be vested in the state and stools, but only through institutions, not individuals. Citizens and businesses hold long term leases. This eliminates the discretion that fuels conflict,” he suggested. Currently, approximately 80 percent of land in Ghana is customary land owned by stools, skins, clans, or families, with traditional leaders acting as custodians.
The policy analyst is advocating for the creation of Land Trusts for all stool and state lands. These trusts, not individual chiefs or family heads, would become the only bodies allowed to transact land. Chiefs would hold ceremonial roles while land management becomes fully transparent, audited, and professional.
“These trusts become the only lawful transacting entities. Chiefs become ceremonial fiduciaries, not land dealers. Trusts operate under statutory oversight, with audited accounts and public transparency,” he stated. He likened this system to similar models in Japan and local land boards in the United States.
Kwapong further calls for mandatory registration, where land that is not registered cannot be treated as land in law. This strict rule, used in Poland and Japan, would wipe out the ambiguity that leads to overlapping claims. It makes written, verified documentation the only basis for ownership, ending reliance on oral accounts or ancestral stories.
The Ecobank board member maintains that another reset is needed to outlaw behaviours that undermine the system. This includes automatic demolition of any structure built without proper registration or permits, giving oral claims zero legal weight, and criminalising private demolitions by individuals or groups. However, enforcement must only be handled by the land trust or local authorities.
“No registration, no permit. No permit, no building. If you build anyway, the structure must come down, without exception,” he stated. To illustrate the transformation, Kwapong describes a simple example using a proposed New Juaben Land Trust.
A developer seeking 50 acres in New Juaben would deal only with the New Juaben Land Trust. Every step, from checking maps to issuing leases and collecting payments, happens through one transparent, accountable, audited system. Chiefs receive fixed stipends, not irregular land money. No confusion, no competing claims, no shortcuts.
Kwapong believes these reforms are not just administrative but represent the foundation for national progress. He cites that Poland, Japan, South Korea, and Peru show that nations can build order in their land administration. Ghana can also sanitize the system, he argues, but only by choosing institutions over personalities, documentation over story, and universal rules over discretionary authority.
“If Ghana puts order into land, it puts order into its future. If it does not, no reform, economic, political, or social, will stand on firm ground,” he concluded. His proposals come amid broader discussions about land reform in Ghana, with various stakeholders submitting recommendations to the Constitutional Review Committee.
Ghana’s land challenges have long been recognized as major barriers to development. Banks regularly turn down properties without proper titles, limiting access to credit for small businesses and families. Land cases can take five to fifteen years to conclude, and even after rulings, enforcement sometimes remains weak.
Progress on formalizing land rights through land titling programmes has been agonizingly slow, with less than 10 percent of land currently registered. This sluggish coverage perpetuates land insecurity, hinders investment, and limits economic growth. Large stretches of land lie idle across Accra, Kumasi, Tamale, and Takoradi because ownership remains unclear or multiple families claim the same plot.
The century old Nkonya and Alavanyo dispute stands as a painful reminder that unresolved land issues outlive generations. When land sits stuck, money sits stuck, and the economy slows down, according to policy analysts.
Kwapong is a former Wall Street executive and Founder of the National Blue Ocean Strategy Initiative (NBOSI). An MIT trained engineer, his commentary focuses on institutional reform, transparency, and the economics of public trust. He previously worked with GE Capital, Deutsche Bank, and Royal Bank of Scotland, and served as a Senior Vice President at the New York City Economic Development Corporation.
He holds a doctorate in Nonlinear Systems, Artificial Intelligence (AI), and Risk Control from Columbia University, New York, and completed undergraduate and graduate studies in Chemical and Nuclear Engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). He is Managing Partner of The Songhai Group, a corporate development company.
The 2025 budget presented by the Minister of Finance outlined plans to “reset” the nation’s finances and stimulate sustainable growth. While fiscal consolidation, debt management, and mining took centre stage, the land economy, a critical source of government revenue, received limited attention despite representing a vast, untapped resource.
The budget speech emphasized the need for reform and recognized the importance of establishing a regulatory framework for property rate collection. However, fully realizing the true potential of land requires a comprehensive strategy that addresses fundamental issues such as tenure security, land use planning, and governance transparency.
