Economists and development analysts, over the years, have named a number of factors that are militating against Ghana’s economic transformation and development, with land gaining little prominence, but it is emerging that the country’s land system is heavily blameworthy for its underdevelopment.
This is the viewpoint of Hene Aku Kwapong, a CDD-Ghana Fellow and Ecobank Ghana Board Member.
The CDD-Ghana fellow is making a strong case that it is about time Ghana’s land challenges, which are often seen as families fighting over inherited plots, businesses stuck in endless paperwork, and investors hesitating because one parcel of land can have three owners, are seen as a full-blown national development crisis.
“A society’s land system, how rights are defined, how ownership is recorded, how disputes are resolved, determines whether development accelerates or stalls. And in Ghana, land is not accelerating development. It is suffocating it,” he lamented.
Ghana’s Current Land System as a Silent Killer of Development
In a striking reflection drawn from years of study and experience, Kwapong argues that Ghana’s land system has become one of the country’s biggest silent killers of economic progress.
While many point to inflation, corruption, or weak revenue as obstacles to growth, he insists that land, how it is owned, managed, recorded, and contested, is quietly strangling Ghana’s potential.
Hene Aku Kwapong explains that in most thriving economies, land is the foundation on which wealth is built. It allows ordinary people to borrow, build, invest, and grow businesses.
But in Ghana, land behaves like what he describes as “development antimatter”. Instead of powering progress, it drains energy, money, and ambition, leaving behind conflict, confusion, and stalled projects.
A Missed Opportunity at Reform
Hene Aku Kwapong reveals a little-known episode when, years ago, he met renowned economist Hernando de Soto, famous for championing property rights as a path to poverty reduction, who told him he and former U.S. President Bill Clinton had offered to support Ghana with a full overhaul of its land administration system in 2006.
According to de Soto, as claimed by the CDD-Ghana fellow, the offer stalled because the then-government lacked the political courage to pursue sweeping reforms. Today, Ghana is still paying the price. This means the country missed a golden chance to reform its land administration to put it on a path that can support socio-economic development.
“Economists sometimes speak of “dead capital,” a term Hernando de Soto made famous when describing properties that cannot be used as collateral,” he narrated, recounting that “Funny enough I met Hernando de Soto one late night in London where we had dinner, at which he shared with me how he and Bill Clinton had offered funding to Kuffour to complete a complete overhaul of Ghana’s land system in 2006. Kuffour, according to him, lacked political courage.”
The Toll on Development
The consequences, he says, are in our eyes. The unfinished buildings scattered across the country, lost investments, stalled infrastructure, mistrust between citizens and the state, and millions of cedis tied up in disputes that should never have started are all stalling the country’s economic progress.
For instance, he enumerates that for entrepreneurs, the story is painfully striking. A young contractor raises capital to start a housing project, only to discover that the plot he bought legally has been sold to someone else.
A small business owner secures a lease, then gets dragged into a three-year court battle because a different family claims ownership. Foreign investors walk away because no one can state with certainty who owns what.
The Need for Reform
Hene Kwapong stresses that land is not a passive asset. It is the stage on which development stands. When the stage is cracked, when ownership is unclear, records are unreliable, and disputes are common—nothing built on it can stand firmly.
Ghana’s economic future, he argues, depends on fixing this foundation once and for all. Clear ownership, stronger laws, digital records, quicker dispute resolution, and political will are not just administrative improvements; they are the keys to unlocking billions in dormant wealth.
He is therefore convinced that without the needed reforms, Ghana will continue to work hard but still move in circles.
