Determinants of the Impacts of Land Law Reform on Land Titling Registration and Tenure Security in Ghana

The incessant promotion of legal recognition of customary land rights and the strengthening of the capacity of customary land administration has inspired the implementation of land law reform programmes in the Global South. The land law reforms are primarily implemented to create legal frameworks to support land titling registration and tenure security of households. While studies have shown the consequences of land law reforms on land titling registration and tenure security, scholars have not intensively examined the determinants of the impacts of land law reforms on land titling registration and tenure security of households in a historical context. Therefore, the major purpose of this paper is to use a historical framework to investigate the impacts of land law reforms and the factors that determine these impacts on land titling registration and tenure security of households in Ghana. The paper used secondary materials and findings from a recent study conducted by the author in peri-urban Kumasi, Ghana. The insights from the study illustrate that historically, land law reforms have had low impacts on land titling registration and tenure security in Ghana. The factors accounting for the low impacts of land law reforms on land titling registration and tenure security include low participation of citizens in land law reform processes, awareness of the existence of land laws, de facto land titling registration, land use type, and others. The paper argues that the conception that land law reform will provide a strong legal framework for land titling registration and the statutory recognition of customary land rights will support the tenure security of poor households are a misnomer in Ghana. Rather, historically, land law reforms are implemented to shield capitalist accumulators to perpetuate their exploitation of poor households through land titling registration, and the reforms fortify the position of traditional authorities in land administration to expropriate their subjects during land commoditisation.