Oral Strikes 8,160 Land Deals

as Mahama Draws Red Line on Public Lands

By Philip Antoh

The Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources has drawn a line in the sand. Following a comprehensive audit of public land transactions conducted between 2017 and 2024, the government has announced a raft of reforms that centralise approval authority with the Minister and establish a dedicated task force to combat encroachment.
Addressing the media yesterday, Minister Emmanuel Armah-Kofi Buah revealed the scale of the review: 8,160 applications for public land leases have been scrutinised following President John Dramani Mahama’s directive of January 10, 2025, which imposed a temporary freeze on all public land transactions.
The numbers tell a story of systemic dysfunction. The reviewed applications comprised 4,176 direct allocations, 2,799 regularisations, 19 allocations for state bungalows, 108 land swap or public-private partnership deals, 795 subsequent transactions, and 263 new allocations.
“Many of these applications did not fully adhere to the Lands Commission’s internal procedures,” Buah stated. “These issues compromised transparency, accountability, and public trust.”
The axe has fallen decisively on incomplete transactions. All applications in the affected categories that had not reached completion have been cancelled, with applicants to be formally notified. For those already completed, a case-by-case review is underway. “Any allocation that violated due process will be revoked,” the Minister warned.
This is not merely administrative housekeeping. It signals a government prepared to unwind deals struck under the previous administration where procedural shortcuts were taken. The political undercurrent is unmistakable: the Mahama government is signalling that the era of opaque land deals is over.
The reforms unveiled yesterday fundamentally alter the landscape of public land administration. Key among them:
· Ministerial Approval Mandate: No public land allocation will proceed without the written approval of the Lands Minister, centralising authority that was previously diffused across the Commission’s bureaucracy.
· Standardised Processes: The Public Land Application Form has been revised and standardised to eliminate the procedural variations that facilitated abuse.
· Stricter Internal Procedures: The Lands Commission is being required to tighten its internal controls, addressing the “procedural issues” that characterised the 2017-2024 period.
· Enforcement Mechanism: A Public Land Protection Task Force is being established to physically confront encroachment and unauthorised development a recognition that paperwork alone cannot protect state lands.
The review was overseen by a high-powered committee chaired by Deputy Minister Yusif Sulemana, with membership including Collins Dauda, MP for Asutifi South and Chairman of the Lands Committee; Prof. Bruce Kofi Banoeng-Yakubu; Prof. Kwame John, Esq.; and Rev. Dr. Lawrence Tetteh. Their remit extended to examining public land leases across all sixteen regions, suggesting the problem is national in scope.
While the Minister emphasised that the temporary ban on public land transactions has been lifted, the new requirements particularly the ministerial approval clause effectively create a bottleneck at the top. Whether the Ministry has the capacity to process applications efficiently while maintaining rigorous oversight remains an open question.
The creation of a Protection Task Force also raises practical challenges. Similar task forces in the past have struggled with resources, political interference, and the sheer scale of encroachment. The difference this time, officials insist, is political will at the highest level.
“Public lands are held in trust for the people of Ghana and should be managed in the public interest,” Buah emphasised. The sentiment is unimpeachable. The execution will determine whether these reforms represent genuine transformation or another chapter in Ghana’s long struggle to protect its public assets from private capture.
For those whose allocations have been cancelled and those awaiting the axe on completed but procedurally flawed deals the message is clear: the rules of the game have changed. Ministerial approval is now the price of admission to Ghana’s public land market.