President John Dramani Mahama has lifted the ban on transactions on state lands.

President Mahama made the announcement on Tuesday, when he inaugurated 26-Member Governing Board of the National Lands Commission, under the Chairmanship of Dr Wordsworth Odame Larbi at the Presidency in Accra.

The President said public lands made for the benefit of all Ghanaians had been illegally sold, re-zoned, or encroached upon with little accountability or consequences.

He said the unrestrained dissipation of state lands was not the work of the ordinary Ghanaian citizen; saying “It is spearheaded by influential individuals who wield public office not as a trust, but as a personal entitlement”.

President Mahama said prime government lands, ecological buffer zones, school land reserves, forest enclaves, Ramsar sites, and even lately, lagoons, had been appropriated by individuals who had been given the responsibility of protecting them.

“This must end with this commission. In pursuit of this reform agenda, my government placed a temporary ban on all state land transactions to enable a thorough review of existing processes,” he said.

He said that exercise had yielded valuable insights into the weaknesses of their current system and the urgent reforms that are required.

“So today, with the inauguration of the new commission and the adoption of robust accountability measures, I’m pleased to announce that a ban on land transactions has been lifted,” he said.

“Henceforth, all land transactions, allocation, lease, or sale must strictly comply with transparent processes, data verification, and oversight mechanisms.”

The President reiterated that the lifting of this ban must not signal a return to business as usual.

“It is a signal that a new disciplined era of land management has begun. And that is why we’re embarking on a bold reset, an agenda that is rooted in four pillars.”

He said the first is to restore public confidence in land administration through transparency, fairness, and justice.

While the second is to reverse illegal land transactions, reclaiming encroached lands, and protecting public assets.

The third is digitizing, modernizing, and decentralizing land services to ensure access and efficiency.

Whereas the fourth is harmonizing customary and statutory land systems to promote equity and coherence.

Dr Wordsworth Odame Larbi, the Chairman of the Governing Board of the National Lands Commission, on behalf of his colleagues thanked the President for giving them the privilege to serve the nation.