Land tenure formalisation and perceived tenure security: Two decades of the land administration project in Ghana

Abstract

Ghana’s Land Administration Project (LAP), initiated in 2003, aimed to enhance certainty regarding land rights. What has been achieved since then? We explore landowners’ perceptions of tenure security in Ghana using micro-level data from two waves of the Ghanaian Living Standards Surveys: GLSS5+ (2008) and GLSS7 (2017). This data allows us to study the linkages between land title formality and perceptions of tenure security, measured by landowners' perceived ability to sell or use their land as collateral. This is complemented by analysing government policy documents and appraisal reports from independent organisations, making our study a valuable contribution to ongoing research on the formalisation-security link in Ghana and other African countries. The results indicate that those with formal titles are more likely to perceive their land ownership secure. However, in some regions customary systems persist in parallel with perceived security. These regional nuances highlight the complex factors influencing perception of tenure security. For policy, these findings emphasise the need to consider contextual peculiarities and expertise when assessing the compatibility of customary traditions with formal titles and finding solutions for potential coexistence.