The Minister for Lands and Natural Resources, Emmanuel Armah-Kofi Buah, has announced that all public lands previously sold by the government will undergo a review to ensure value for money.

Speaking during a visit by the Vice-President to the Ministry, Mr Buah said the government has already begun the process.

“We began the process of reviewing. One of the things we all heard about was that public lands that the government had taken for specific purposes that now belong to the government, some of them for agricultural purposes, some of them for different purposes, become government property,” he explained.

He noted that while certain individuals had been entrusted with the responsibility to protect these lands, there had been instances of abuse.

“Somehow, the people have been given the charge to protect these lands. But some are abusing it,” Mr Buah added.

The Minister emphasised that the President is committed to proper management of public lands. “His Excellency the President vowed to make sure that we get it right. I'm happy to tell you that we constituted a team led by my able deputy, and we got cabinet approval to address that in the long term,” he said.

Warning government officials against misappropriation, Mr Buah stated: “By the time we finish, no government official will even cross with their mind to take public land. Because we will publish your name in every newspaper.”

He further revealed that the cabinet has approved a review of all previously sold public lands to ensure transactions reflect value for money and were properly executed.

“By the way, cabinet has approved our recommendation that all public lands that had been sold are going under review to make sure there's value for money and process what was done,” he said.

Mr Buah added: “Those that didn't finish the process are automatically cancelled. And so we are going on to make sure that we implement to the letter the cabinet recommendation to give confidence to the people of Ghana that we are going to protect public lands.”