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Periodical article Periodical article Leiden University catalogue Leiden University catalogue WorldCat catalogue WorldCat
Title:Land registration in Ghana: past, present and the future
Author:Agbosu, L.K.
Year:1990
Periodical:Journal of African Law
Volume:34
Issue:2
Pages:104-127
Language:English
Geographic term:Ghana
Subjects:land law
land registration
Abstract:The scheme of land registration in Ghana, first introduced in 1883 allegedly to solve the problem of insecurity of title, has in effect functioned to consolidate the usurpation and privatization of communal lands for achieving capitalist development policy objectives. All the legislative measures adopted since 1883 have been tailored to serve the economic interests of a minority of property owners through the machinery of land registration. The Land Title Registration Law, 1986 (Provisional National Defence Council Law 152) puts the seal on this development. The present article highlights how this result has been achieved over the last hundred years. It first examines title registration and its declared objectives. It then describes the background to land registration in the Gold Coast - the introduction of commercial agriculture, and the development of the mining and timber industries in the last two decades of the nineteenth century - and the role played by the ensuing concession boom in the privatization of communal lands, the undermining of traditional systems of tenure under the impact of the new economic order and the twin problems of uncertainty of title and costly litigation to which this gave rise. The article goes on to detail the land registration enactments of 1883 and 1895 and their inherent defects, subsequent ad hoc measures to protect developers and purchasers, the Land Registry Act, 1962, the Land Title Registration Law, 1986, and the reasons for the new Act. Notes, ref.
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