Improving Land Rights: A Model for Determining Compensation Package (Compacal-G) for Compulsorily Acquired Land in Ghana

Ghana’s economy accelerated to 8.1 % in 2017, driven by the mining and oil sectors, making it the fastest growing African economy, trailing only Ethiopia. Industry’s growth is expected to improve to 9.7 % in 2019. These growth rates are expected to translate into the improvement and growth of Industry and infrastructure (SDG 9), which requires large tracts of land. The growth of the mining sector also requires large tracts of agricultural lands. However, 80 % of the land in Ghana are customarily owned. This requires government to compulsorily acquire land for public good to improve life on land (SDG 11 & 15). Government must also pay fair and adequate compensation to land losers as required by the Constitution of Ghana. Over the years, these acquisitions have been met with violence, tension and litigations due to unfair, inadequate and non-transparent compensations. When compensations are paid, they are delayed due to data acquisition and processing challenges. This promotes inequity, loss of livelihood and poverty. This study set out to identify compensable agricultural resources by applying modern geo-spatial technologies to create a geo-database of major resources in the sixteen regions in Ghana. A Cost Centre and “linear regression model” was generated by adequately costing all the elements for developing the resources. The process was inclusive of major stakeholders and was scientifically done in accordance with best practice. The computerised model package, COMPACAL-G was developed to ensure fair, adequate and transparent compensation that promotes equity (SDG 10), ensures sustainable livelihood for vulnerable farmers and mitigates poverty (SDG 1). COMPACAL-G ensures faster data acquisition, processing, assessment of fair, transparent and prompt compensation calculation, which the present system fails to address. COMPACAL-G can be used to undertake desk top preliminary assessment of possible compensation figures prior to acquisitions. This enables compensation to be adequately factored into project costs at the inception stage.