Introduction

Looking down from Aplaku hillside near Israel junction, out to the Gulf of Guinea

I think I as the Editor I should warn at the beginning that land purchase in Accra , Ghana is a minefield, complicated and is a bit like an onion with several subtext levels going on . I have also found that no one seems to know everything about land.

Buying land is a bit like buying a car, the paper work might all be in order- all the boxes are ticked but that does not stop you from ending up buying a " dog " .

It also does not help that land law is weak in Ghana and about as watertight as a Tea Bag; it also does not help when paid Government Civil Servant seem all to happy to offer to help , on a problem case in an additional capacity to their job, and that it involves money !

Its hard to paint a picture of what you have to deal with unless you go out there, but let me give you a sample -on one occasion I asked an Official for the name of the road outside his building , since my taxi driver found it by chance & I wanted the name so I could find it easier next time- he said he did not know!

Most problems occur in Accra, particularly along the coast, the least trouble area near to Accra is Aburi, which is a town in the eastern region of Ghana. Kumasi is another place where there is less risk in buying land and is directly related to the hierarchy of its chief system.

In a nutshell the Asante king who is currently Otumfuo Osei TuTu II , is at the top of the pyramid of all other chiefs in the Asante area, and who all belong to one tribe the Asantes (also spelt Ashanti). Ultimately then if you have problems and do not get joy at one level , you can go all the way to the top.

Knowing Accra and Kumasi both quite well , I would put it like this - Kumasi is more ordered , with perhaps better systems in place, better roads & the people are more sensible and business like.

Kumasi is not a rat race like Accra, where there are plenty of people willing to rip you off

Adjacent gives a brief outline of land & its system of ownership; below I have set out some common areas where problems occur, and some of the things you can do to limit problems.

What you can do before parting with your money

Speaking to land surveyors the first thing you can do is try to find out the history of the land , does it have a history of problems, which people populate where the land you want to but is situated. For instance the people in Aburi are Akuapim, I think its fair to say they are generally placid and honest.

You can ask around in the area about the land and whether anyone knows any history about the land you are interested in; if there are issues it will not take long to find out.

. Also its best find out who actually is the official chief; in Accra a visit can be made to the House of Chiefs , which is located in Osu, there you can find out which chief represents which area.

Find out how long he has been a chief, is he the permanent chief or a temporary chief, filling in for a while, because the permanent chief just died. Simply put if you buy land and get an indenture from a temporary chief , a new chief might oust the temporary one, there can be power struggles involving the local people as to who the rightful chief should be

Do not expect the new chief to be helpful, in these cases you might be quoted with something like "you went the wrong way in buying your land , now you must go the right way & buy the land again". The land registry will also not recognise the signature of the temporary chief.

As an actual example Nii Tetteh Nartey was a temporary chief in Aplaku, near Kokrobite. When he was the official stand in chief he was no t exactly what could be described as a " regular guy " .

Since he has been replaced he could only be described as a crook. What I can tell you is that he used an illiterate to sell land owned by some else. This illiterate was arrested by the true land owners -I will not bore you with the details

Sample page inside indenture

Even with an official sitting permanent chief find out as much as you can from everybody if the chief is a straight up guy or not.

If the chief has pissed a few people off it will not be that difficult to find out

The occurrence where somebody sells the same piece of land to three or more people is frighteningly common , with many straight from the horses mouth tales abound if you spend any time at all in Accra.

Once you have bought your land you will probably soon find out if there were issues with it or not . Land guards are basically local groups, stating that their function is to protect the chiefs land. In practice if someone knows there is a vulnerability issue on your land, you will find land guards hassling you, stating the land belongs to someone else. They then start threatening you, that since you do not own the land, they will demolish what you build unless you tip them money to leave you alone

This is beginning to change and land guards are much less inclined to use threats of violence.

if this does not happen everything is hunky dory and you do not get problems, do not think your land is safe. If you live abroad there is nothing to stop someone building on your land say a small hotel. You return to Ghana and find that someone has trespassed your land and has built a hotel what are you going to do ?

You go to the police and the lawyers get involved -get ready to waste money ! Also you may quite probably loose the case because the law at the moment favours development, so they may actually back the trespasser, but you get the money you paid for the land awarded back to you. But where does that leave you ? - It leaves you with no land, to start the whole process again and a hole in your pocket due to the court case !