Land Rights Research

The document provides a comprehensive overview of Ghana's land law regime, detailing the six major registrable interests in land and various minor rights. It explains the fiduciary duties of those managing collectively owned lands, the mechanisms for benefit sharing and compensation during compulsory acquisition, and the statutory emphasis on Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) to reduce the burden on the judicial system. It also outlines the roles of the Lands Commission and Customary Land Secretariats in ensuring transparency and access to information.

• The Land Act, 2020 (Act 1036) identifies six major registrable interests in land: allodial title, common law freehold, customary law freehold, usufructuary interest, leasehold interest, and customary tenancy.
• Allodial title is the highest form of land interest, existing potentially forever and acquirable through conquest, pioneer discovery and settlement, gift, purchase, agreement, or compulsory acquisition by the state.
• Individuals managing stool, skin, clan, or family land are legally classified as fiduciaries and must be transparent, open, fair, and impartial; failure to do so can result in a minimum of five years imprisonment.
• In cases of compulsory acquisition, the state must provide prompt, fair, and adequate compensation. The disbursement ratio typically allocates 60% to the usufructuary interest holder and 40% to the allodial title holder if a usufructuary interest exists.
• The Land Act, 2020 mandates that many land disputes, particularly those involving title registration in registration districts, must first be subjected to Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) under the Alternative Dispute Resolution Act, 2010 (Act 798) before courts will entertain the action.
• Customary Land Secretariats are statutorily required to maintain accurate land transaction records, provide information on land hierarchy, and establish dispute resolution mechanisms to facilitate the settlement of land disputes.
• The state is required to ensure that funds for compensation in compulsory acquisitions are paid into an interest-yielding escrow account before the acquisition is undertaken by the Lands Commission.
• Ghanaian law recognizes 'profit à prendre' as a registrable right, allowing an entity to enter another's land to extract natural resources such as minerals, timber, or game.

APA

Martey, D., Godts, R., & Somevi, S. K. (2024). Land Rights Research. ClientEarth. https://www.clientearth.org/media/45efwhx4/ghana-clientearth-2024.pdf

Chicago

Martey, Dennis, Raphaëlle Godts, and Sheila Kwakyewaa Somevi. Land Rights Research. ClientEarth, 2024. https://www.clientearth.org/media/45efwhx4/ghana-clientearth-2024.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Martey |first1=Dennis |last2=Godts |first2=Raphaëlle |last3=Somevi |first3=Sheila Kwakyewaa |title=Land Rights Research |publisher=ClientEarth |date=December 2024 |url=https://www.clientearth.org/media/45efwhx4/ghana-clientearth-2024.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{martey2024land, author = {Martey, Dennis and Godts, Raphaëlle and Somevi, Sheila Kwakyewaa}, title = {{Land Rights Research}}, institution = {ClientEarth}, year = {2024}, month = dec, url = {https://www.clientearth.org/media/45efwhx4/ghana-clientearth-2024.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }