The Association of Ghana Industries (AGI) has once again lamented the challenges confronting its members in their quest to acquire land for industrial activities.

The Association says the lack of regulation in the land tenure system in the country makes it extremely difficult for them to build and operate profitable ventures.

In an interview with Citi Business News, the Greater Accra Chairman of the AGI, Tsonam Akpeloo, explained that the non-existence of properly established land banks makes many prospective investors go through frustrations and delays in accessing land for their ventures.

He feared if nothing is done about the unfortunate happenings around land acquisition in the country, it may affect the competitiveness of local businesses in the African Continental Free Trade Area.

“If you follow keenly the land challenges, you would have realized that the Government has rolled out the National Industrialization Transformation Agenda which is essential to ensure that Ghana becomes an industrial hub in the wake of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) and to also ensure that we are competitive, and so we cannot continue to just assign slogans to industrial situations, we need to put action into them.

“There are several issues bordering on the land tenure system. I have one of my members in Tema who had to pay for the same land three times. He had to pay three different families for the same land and by the time he was done dealing with the land issue, about 70 percent of his capital has gone into settling land disputes.”

He also stressed that for the country to have this issue resolved, “we will need a lot of land banks dedicated to industrial use, that will relieve investors, so they can focus on their productive activities.”

The Deputy Minister for Works and Housing, Abdulai Abanga during the 2022 Ghana Property Awards, hinted that the Government was taking the necessary steps to establish land banks across the country for residential and industrial constructions to alleviate the stress Ghanaians go through to acquire lands.