Government Begins Processes To Return Vested Lands To Original Owners

The government has initiated processes to give back some vested lands to their original owners. The Lands and Natural Resources Minister, Samuel Jinapor, who disclosed this during the inauguration of the De-vesting Lands Committee today, Wednesday, February 23, 2022, said committee will first look into options of resolving

the age-old vested lands issues. Vested lands occur when the state takes over ownership from customary landowners and holds the land in trust for landowning community. Mr. Jinapor also assured affected stools, families, and individuals that the de-vesting of the lands will be done fairly and equitably. The President is also

committed to ensuring that the de-vesting of vested lands if deemed necessary, is done fairly, equitably, transparently, justly, and based on integrity, Our duty is to assist the President in this regard, and we will do our best to ensure that each stool, clan, family, or individual affected by the vesting of their land also receives just

consideration of the matters in issue. President Akufo-Addo and his government are determined to do right by all stools, clans, families, and individuals across the country by resolving this age-old problem once and for all, the Minister said. In Ghana, stools, skins, clans, and families also account for about 78 percent of all land

ownership. The State also owns twenty percent and the remainder too is owned by the state and the customary authorities in a form of a partnership known as split ownership.