Land Allocation and its effects on the spatial planning and development of Kumasi Metropolis.

The thesis discusses the problems associated with land allocation by examining the effectiveness or otherwise of the operating system of land administration and how the administration of lands is affecting spatial development in the Kumasi metropolis. A conceptual framework on land administration in Ghana was used as the basis of the research problem. Two propositions were tested. The stratified, simple and purposive sampling techniques were used to select 343 respondents made up of government land administrators, traditional authorities, building owners and other interest groups. The research concentrated in ten (10) suburbs of the Kumasi metropolis. The suburbs were carefully selected to represent the three classes of communities as well as their geographical locations. Analyses were basically comparative in nature and the Geographical Information System was the main analytical tool used. The research encountered three methodological problems and biases. Firstly, traditional authorities in all the study communities were to be interviewed. Unfortunately, neither the chiefs nor their representatives from two of the study communities-Buokrom and Nhyieso could be interviewed. Secondly is the bias in the data on physical structures collected. In all the study communities, residential structures far out numbered other land uses such as education, business, religious etc. It was therefore difficult to select equal number of land use structures in all the study communities. Therefore approximately 88% of physical structures forming part of the sample were residential. Thirdly, GIS analyses on maps were based on satellite photographs taken on Kumasi in 2005 and perhaps changes might have occurred between 2005 and 2008 when the research was undertaken. Examination of the system of land administration in the Kumasi metropolis revealed that, the system is weak with very little relationship among the institutions responsible for land administration. These institutions are the Traditional Authorities, the Survey Department, the Town and Country Planning Department, the Lands Commission, the Land Title Registry and the Office of the Administrator of Stool Lands. Also the government land institutions (made up of all the above institutions except the traditional authorities) are facing serious challenges of human resource, funding, logistics and outdated land laws most of which they are powerless to handle. Also, traditional authorities in the process of allocating lands are not fully guided by layout plans prepared for their communities. The inefficiency in the administration of lands has resulted in the wrong placement of several structures in the metropolis and the problem was high in second class communities than the first and third class communities. The wrong placement of such structures has resulted in poor spatial development leading to inadequate basic social amenities and environmental decay. Certain measures to enhance the administration and management of lands in the metropolis are proposed. Prominent among them is to decentralize the land administration system and also establishment of Customary Lands and Revenue Department to replace the Office of the Administrator of Stool Lands. A further research about decentralization and land administration is proposed.

Source: KNUST