President of the Ghana Institution of Surveyors (GhIS), Mrs. Rosemargaret Esubonteng, says the country does not have a comprehensive digital map base to support geo-information delivery.
She said modern maps were created in 1974, when several urgent needs for all development actors were frustrated due to the lack of basic information at the launch of the 18 Surveyors Week and 54th General Annual Meeting.
The lack of digital map data, she stressed, is fueling a race among many public agencies to acquire and process their own data.
She added that this creates serious challenges with accuracy and compatibility because the state mapping agency is not resourced to provide this basic need. She said the absence of an integrated land information system and database, which would provide the requisite information to support bodies such as local assemblies and the Ghana Revenue Authority to boost revenue from property rates and other land-based revenues, was needed.
Mrs. Esubonteng noted that the challenges frustrated the ability to leverage strong digital and electronic workflow processes to ensure greater interoperability between the Lands Commission and other bodies, such as banks and financial institutions, to facilitate collateralised lending.
She said there is a need to develop office infrastructure for the newly created regions besides Accra and Kumasi to support the operations of the public sector land agencies.
