Gomoa Ojobi Victim Scammed, Forced To Repurchase Land, Then Made To Wait Over 6 Months For Inspection After Paying GHS 5,400
A damning 7-month investigative study has exposed Ghana’s land registration system as one that punishes citizens who try to do the right thing, while rewarding corruption, delays and unofficial charges.
The study, conducted by Drewperp Consult Limited (DCL) and led by Andrews Kwame Perprem, covered the Central and Eastern Regions and sampled 145 landowners as well as officials from the Lands Commission and the Land Use and Spatial Planning Authority (LU&SPA).
Its conclusion is blunt: land registration in Ghana has become so expensive, slow and unpredictable that many ordinary Ghanaians are pushed into informality – with deadly consequences.
A System That Punishes Compliance
According to the report, applicants face high fees, unofficial charges, long delays, and no standardized fee regime across offices.
In Gomoa Ojobi in the Central Region, one victim was scammed by a fake agent who posed as a pastor, identified in the report as “Sethoo”. The victim bought land that had already been registered to someone else and was forced to repurchase it.
After that ordeal, the victim paid GHS 5,400 in assessment fees – including a GHS 3,000 deposit – to the Lands Commission in Cape Coast, and waited over six months for a site inspection.
In Samsam near Nsawam in the Eastern Region, the report found two neighbours who bought adjacent plots from the same seller days apart received very different fee assessments – a clear sign of an arbitrary, non-standardized system.
LU&SPA Bottleneck And Charges Without Receipts
The study identifies a major bottleneck in the new process where the Lands Commission must obtain planning scheme verification from LU&SPA before titles are finalized.
The Gomoa Ojobi applicant was charged GHS 3,000 for planning scheme commentary plus GHS 200 for site inspection at the Gomoa East District Assembly – an inspection the report says was reportedly never done physically.
Similar fee inconsistencies were recorded in the Eastern Region.
While officials blame underfunding for the delays, the report flags a more serious accountability risk: payments collected without official government receipts.
The Hidden Link To Floods
The most alarming finding of the report is the direct link between failed land registration and Ghana’s recurring deadly floods.
According to DCL, people who cannot finish registration cannot obtain valid building permits. That fuels informal construction on waterways, drainage corridors and flood-prone lands.
Some enforcement officers, the report alleges, take informal fees instead of stopping illegal building.
The result: blocked drains, diverted waterways and floods that could have been prevented.
“Land registration should be a vehicle for protecting citizens, encouraging investment, and promoting orderly development. Instead, many ordinary Ghanaians face excessive costs, uncertainty, and lengthy delays that discourage compliance,” said Lead Researcher, Andrews Kwame Perprem.
What The Report Recommends
Drewperp Consult Limited is calling for urgent reforms, including:
1. Standardised, publicly available fees nationwide
2. Mandatory digital payments with automated e-receipts
3. Adequate funding for district planning authorities
4. An integrated digital platform linking the Lands Commission and District Assemblies
5. Legally enforceable timelines for approvals
6. Stronger oversight to eliminate extortion and corruption
The report warns that until registration becomes cheap, fast and transparent, Ghana will continue to pay the price – in lost investment, land disputes, and lives lost to preventable floods.
