The Land Of Land For Urban Land - 1643 Words

4.1 Introduction Following a six-week fieldwork into the operations of private companies involved in the purchase, registration and sale of land to urban dwellers particularly peri-urban lands in Accra, this chapter now presents a summary of the results from the research and then details a discussion of what the findings mean for policy and practice. 4.2 Research Findings 4.2.1 Individual Urban Land Brokers The land market in Ghana as discussed earlier is growing fast but still largely informal. The process of urban land acquisition was facilitated by individuals who had created networks with key players in the land acquisition and registration system. Until recently, urban land seekers acquired their lands with the help of a land agent.†¦show more content†¦Proof of transactions were difficult to provide. Majority of the time, the agents were recommended by friends, colleagues, or fellow members from social clubs. Participants indicated that the agents were from different backgrounds noting that in some situations, they were employees of one the government agencies responsible for title registration. They worked on a ‘part-time’ basis. A few ‘full-time’ agents set up temporary structures usually along busy roads but were difficult to trace. In some extreme cases, these land agents are members of vigilante groups who ensured security of tenure by threatening the lives of any ‘unapproved’ persons found on their allocated plots. One of the participants pointed out a situation where different vigilante groups clashed over the same piece of land. This has been a common case in many peri-urban areas where there’s inadequate police protection. The groups usually consist of young men of the landowning stool or family who believe they are entitled to some proceeds from the sale of ‘their’ only held in custody by the chiefs or family heads. 4.2.2 Private Sector Involvement in Land Delivery As already seen from the previous chapter, the private sector is involved heavily in the urban land market in Ghana albeit in real estate development and management. However, in recent years their operations have now spread to the provision of land titles. All the nine (9) companies interviewed, in addition to some