The government has initiated processes to give back some vested lands to their original owners.

The Lands and Natural Resources Minister, Samuel Abdulai Jinapor, who disclosed this during the inauguration of the De-vesting Lands Committee today, Wednesday, February 23, 2022, said the committee will first look into options of resolving the age-old vested lands issues.

Vested lands occur when the state takes over ownership from the customary landowners and holds the land in trust for the landowning community.

Mr. Jinapor assured affected stools, families, and individuals that the de-vesting of the lands will be done fairly and equitably.

“The President is committed to ensuring that the de-vesting of vested lands if deemed necessary, is done fairly, equitably, transparently, justly, and based on integrity,”

“Our duty is to assist the President in this regard, and we will do our best to ensure that each stool, clan, family, or individual affected by the vesting of their land receives just consideration of the matters in issue.”

“President Akufo-Addo and his government are determined to do right by all stools, clans, families, and individuals across the country by resolving this age-old problem once and for all,” the Minister said.

In Ghana, stools, skins, clans, and families account for about 78 percent of all land ownership.

The State owns 20 percent and the remainder is owned by the state and customary authorities in a form of a partnership known as split ownership.