The Lands Commission has initiated legal procedures against lessees of State and vested lands who have defaulted on ground rent payments, warning that enforcement measures are expected to be fully rolled out in 2027.
The Executive Secretary of the Commission, Prof. Anthony Owusu-Ansah, said all lessees were obliged to pay their annual ground rent when due, whether or not they had received a demand notice.
Speaking at a Press briefing on Tuesday, 27th October, 2026, he said the Commission had collected GH¢40.7 million in ground rent as of August 2026, representing 90.4 per cent of its GH¢45 million annual target and exceeding the GH¢32.02 million collected in 2025.
He urged defaulters to settle outstanding payments promptly and encouraged lessees with expired leases to begin the renewal process to avoid possible legal consequences.
Prof. Owusu-Ansah said the Commission was pursuing wider reforms to modernise land administration, improve accountability and restore public confidence in the management of land in Ghana. He highlighted the ongoing review of the 1999 National Land Policy, with a new policy expected in 2027, and said proposed regulations for the Land Act, 2020 (Act 1036), were before Parliament for consideration.
The Commission is also expanding its Enterprise Land Information System (ELIS), which has reduced the turnaround time for official land searches from about one month to an average of seven working days in areas where the digital service is operational.
Providing further insight into the reforms in a presentation, the Project Coordinator of the Strategic Land Administration Reform Project (SLARP), Surv. Jones Ofori-Boadu, noted that the project was designed to address long-standing challenges, including fragmented records, outdated maps, manual processes and delays in service delivery. He asserted that Ghana’s most recent national topographic maps date back to 1974, underscoring the need for updated mapping and better sharing of spatial data among public institutions.
Surv. Ofori-Boadu stated that the project will also support customary land secretariats, boundary demarcation, and government land banks for commercial agriculture with the broader aim of delivering a more transparent, accessible and efficient land administration system.
SLARP will support the digitisation of records held by the Lands Commission and the Office of the Administrator of Stool Lands, expand land administration services to district level, strengthen systematic land titling and develop a national cadastre.
