Securing Land and Land Transactions in Accra: Land Registration and Off-Register Strategies. The Case of Oyibi and Dansoman
Date
2018-08-09
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Abstract
This doctoral thesis develops theory to explain how landholders secure their land and land transactions and why they use or do not use land registration and off-register land-securing strategies in urban and peri-urban Accra, the capital city of Ghana.
This study argues that without understanding the underlying reasons why landholders choose to use land registration systems or off-register strategies to secure their land, it is difficult to target aspects of the land registration system to improve; nor can feasible alternative(s) be developed. Using semi-structured interviews, data for the research include a total of 81 interviews, a workshop and two focus-group discussions from Oyibi and Dansoman which are, respectively, urban and peri-urban communities in Accra. The data collected is analyzed using a land-securing theoretical framework developed in the context of the on-going changes in the land tenure system, drawing upon the Reasoned Action Approach, Technology Acceptance Model, and a Social Change Model. The study revealed the predominant mode of land-securing behaviour follows a waterfall or staircase trajectory, where land-securing behaviours are determined by perceptions of tenure security and escalated in response to the perceived nature of threat to their claim. The theory that emerged from the analysis holds that landholders evaluate many inter-related causal factors that are dialectical and mutually inclusive when choosing a land-securing strategy. In a socially, politically, and economically precarious environment where tenure is highly insecure and entrepreneurial and exploitative activities abound, landholders evaluate their personal beliefs about consequential outcomes, usefulness, accessibility, and ease of use, together with societal norms, and associated factors which they believe could hinder or facilitate the performance of the land-securing behaviour. Additionally, landholders also evaluate the degree of security of their tenure or transactions and the level of threat they face.
This research deepens understanding of land registration usage through the development of theories that explain why landholders do not use land registration in securing land in urban and peri-urban Accra, by constructing a waterfall and staircase model for explaining land-securing strategy usage. Results from the study are useful for improving current (or developing alternative) approaches for securing land rights in Ghana.
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Keywords
Land Registration, Property Rights, Customary Land Tenure System and Accra
Citation
Sewornu, R. E. (2018). "Securing Land and Land Transactions in Accra: Land Registration and Off-Register Strategies. The Case of Oyibi and Dansoman (Doctoral thesis, University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada). Retrieved from https://prism.ucalgary.ca. doi:10.11575/PRISM/32806