Ghana’s land records are used in the matters of land ownership and settlement. This project succeeded in creating a clear catalogue of the Land Record’s office, while digitising the oldest pieces dated form 1843. The need for digitisation was evident, and continuous digitisation efforts have been made after the project.
The Land Commission is responsible for the registration and acquisition of land, both for private and public purposes. The records need to be accessible to the population, as they are still relevant to the bureaucratic processes of government. The project aimed to reorganise the Land Commission’s archives, to make the records accessible to the public and researchers. The material dates back to the 1840s, and highlights the history, commercial and industrial activities, residential and settlements of the country.
The materials are endangered as the paper becomes increasingly brittle, and the lack of classification of the material makes the documents impossible to retrieve. The main objective of the project was to ensure the protection of the individual, family, land-ownership, organisational and the State holdings records, held in the Land Registration Division and the Lands Commission.
The project succeeded in organising and labelling the records, to allow easy consultation, while digitising the most endangered pieces, form 1843 to 1909. As the project shed a light on the condition of the records in the Land Commission Offices, the head of the Deeds Registry requested the continuation of the endangered material’s digitisation after the project completion.
