Drive along any expanding corridor across our major cities and towns, and you will see the exact same sight; hundreds of billboards and wooden signposts advertising “Serviced Plots for Sale”, or “Lands for Sale”.
Customary custodians, family heads, and land syndicates are partitioning and selling off arable farm lands, cash-crop belts, and ecological buffers like biscuits. But behind this rapid land rush lies a dangerous, unasked question: Do these advertised plots have approved Local Plans and Spatial Development Frameworks from the appropriate planning authorities?
In most cases, the answer is a resounding No!.
What is marketed as a “prime investment opportunity”? It’s often nothing more than an unapproved layout drawn on a piece of paper, devoid of utility reservations, public road rights of way, or environmental impact assessments.
Under the Land Use and Spatial Planning Act, 2016 (Act 925), District Assemblies are the sole District Planning Authorities. No land allocation, layout, or construction is legally valid for permitting unless it aligns with an approved District Spatial Plan. Yet, land is routinely carved up, sold, and built upon in total defiance of statutory spatial controls.
From Enforcement Inertia to Seasonal Tragedy
The direct consequence of this uncontrolled monetization of land was laid bare once again during the devastating June floods across Greater Accra and the whole country.
- Developers quietly lay foundations directly over natural drainage channels, wetlands, and river buffers while local planning units look on.
- Torrential rains submerge transport hubs, destroy millions in private capital, and claim innocent lives.
- High-level task forces, presidential directives, and heavy excavators move in to execute public demolitions on selected waterways.
- Once public attention moves on, the excavators park, enforcement stalls, and new structures quietly re-emerge in the exact same watercourses.
Sporadic, post-disaster demolitions are not a spatial planning strategy, they are a sign of institutional failure.
If we are serious about national development and protecting human lives, our planning authorities must wake up and move past seasonal publicity exercises. Real, proactive spatial governance requires three non-negotiables…
District Assemblies must deploy their inspectorate units to issue binding Stop-Work Notices and demolish unpermitted structures at the foundation stage under Act 925, not after concrete has cured and lives are at risk.
It is time to hold municipal engineers, planning officers, and surveyors personally and administratively liable when illegal developments flourish under their watch.
Utility providers must be legally barred from connecting electricity or water to any property that lacks a verified, digitized Spatial Planning Permit. Without utilities, the market value of building illegally in a floodplain disappears overnight.
We cannot build a sustainable economic future by consuming our primary ecological assets and ignoring spatial discipline. It is time for District Assemblies to deploy the full weight of Act 925, insulate planning enforcement from political compromise, and bring order to our land markets.
Enough of the cosmetics.