President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has replaced the Executive Secretary of the Lands Commission, Dr. Wilfred Anim-Odame, with Suleimana Dawuda Mahama.
The new head of the Commission holds a degree in Land Economy from the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science And Technology (KNUST) and an MBA from the Pennsylvania State University in the USA.
He is also a fellow of the Ghana Institute of Surveyors.
He has a long standing association with the agency he now heads having started working at the place upon the completion of his studies at KNUST.
Mr. Mahama rose to become a Technical Director at the Lands Ministry and has been involved in many critical lands management projects during his many years in the service of the state.
He lectured Leadership and Governance at GIMPA and Land Administration at the Ghana Institute of Surveyors.
As a management consultant, it is expected he would bring his experience studded record to bear on the now integrated Lands Commission.
President Akufo-Addo expects the convoluted issue of lands in the country to be tackled head-on hence his appointment of an experienced personality like Mr Dawuda Mahama, whose insistence on quality service and abhorrence for corruption have won many hearts over the years.
The Lands Commission with its baggage of negative impression among Ghanaians could be heading for an effective laundering.
The Lands Commission was established under Article 258 of the 1992 Constitution and the Lands Commission Act 767 of 2008 as a corporate body.
The current Lands Commission, as part of the public sector reform programmes and the Ghana Land Administration Project (LAP) has substantially been remodeled by the Act 767 to increase its efficiency and effectiveness.
As part of the reforms, four Land Sector Agencies; the ‘Old Lands Commission,’ Land Valuation Board, Land Title Registry and the Survey Department have been integrated into one Corporate Agency- the ‘New Lands Commission’ which now comprises of four distinct Divisions. The Divisions are; Public and Vested Land Management Division (PVLMD), Land Valuation Division (LVD), Survey and Mapping Division (SMD), and the Land Registration Division (LRD).
The new structure has created a Corporate Head Office headed by an Executive Secretary as the Chief Executive Officer, with two Deputy Executive Secretaries and four Divisional Directors.
To improve land service delivery and management, the Commission with support from the Land Administration Project has developed a strategy to re-engineer the Commissions’ Business Processes and Workflow integration as part of the restructuring of the land sector to reduce process time, improve productivity and efficiency as well as to reduce the cost of land transactions.
By AR Gomda