Mr Gabby Asare Otchere-Darko is proposing a dispassionate look at Ghana’s land tenure system as he argues the current status quo is a disincentive to investors.
In Ghana, a Ghanaian can own land for 99 years while the maximum duration is 50 years for foreigners.
In a Facebook post, the founder of the Danquah Institute, who is also President Akufo-Addo’s cousin, said real estate development is a multibillion-dollar multinational business with developers moving freely across borders to build and sell to owners who also look to pass their acquisitions on to their children.
“Properties are expensive in Ghana but you only own it for a short while. We must have the courage to discuss these things,” he said.
Mr Otchere-Darko noted that the Aborigines’ Rights Protection Society (ARPS) did well in the 19th century to prevent the wholesale expropriation of African lands by European entrepreneurs and officials and the country did well to prevent what happened in Southern and Eastern Africa from happening here, assisted by mosquitoes and malaria.
But in his view, “we live in a different world today. We must better balance the desire to keep freehold in Ghanaian hands and make our leasehold system more investor-friendly.”
He wants questions asked on why foreigners have a limited 50 years to own homes in Ghana adding that “we can’t be rigid and still seek to be globally competitive.”
Below is Mr Otchere-Darko’s full post:
Is it not time we look dispassionately and with an investor eye at our land law again? In the UK, for example, a typical lease is 999 years. In Ghana, it is 99! That constitutional cap of 99 years is for a Ghanaian citizen. The maximum duration is 50 years for foreigners. As we work harder in a fast-integrating Africa to position ourselves competitively, our land tenure system is regularly cited as a gross disincentive for investors.
It is a story all too familiar to Ghanaian lawyers. Real estate development is a multibillion-dollar multinational business with developers moving freely across borders to build and sell to owners who also look to pass their acquisitions on to their children. Properties are expensive in Ghana but you only own it for a short while. We must have the courage to discuss these things.
Aborigines’ Rights Protection Society (ARPS) did well in the 19th century to prevent the wholesale expropriation of African lands by European entrepreneurs or officials and we did well to prevent what happened in Southern and Eastern Africa from happening here, assisted of course by mosquitoes and malaria.
But, we live in a different world today. We must better balance the desire to keep freehold in Ghanaian hands and make our leasehold system more investor-friendly. Have we ever asked why 50 years for a foreign homeowner in Ghana? We can’t be rigid and still seek to be globally competitive.
And, I speak as a LANDOWNER in Akyem Abuakwa with hectares and hectares of family land. Not as a speculator.
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