REBRANDING NORTHERN GHANA: Issues and strategies

Three regions constitute the north of Ghana: Upper East, Upper West and Northern regions. These three regions lie in the Sahel and Guinea Sudan Climatic enclaves having a population approximated at around 5 million.

The North of Ghana has a mean rainfall figures of between 600 to 1100mm per annum with a long period of dry season otherwise known as ‘Harmattan’. The ‘Harmattan’ is usually followed by periodic torrential rains which occasionally result in floods in some areas.

This affects food crop production and other agricultural activities in the area. Since the main occupation of the people in the three regions is agriculture the people are left with no other option of making income after the single maximum rainfall normally registered from May to September elapses.

Peasant farming is therefore the main profession and trade for the populace of the North. Incidentally, food crop farmers are among the very poor in Ghana today. The crops they grow are maize, yam, millet, cassava, soya bean and rice. Other livelihood activities include fetching of firewood, Shea nut picking and butter extraction, charcoal burning, and the rearing of animals such as sheep, goats and cattle.

They also take care of birds such as fowls in small numbers. Both men and women are engaged in farming activities which hitherto has been the preserve of men. It is noteworthy that the population group that is the engine to these farming activities is the Youth. The nature of this occupation, (peasant farming) degenerated by adverse weather conditions and the rapid depletion in soil fertility, makes them unable to produce on a large scale to meet the demand of the larger market throughout the year. Poverty has been very endemic all over the north making it the most poverty stricken areas amongst the 10 regions of Ghana.

Undoubtedly, poverty has deprived most of the populace of the North of several opportunities to a dignified life. Education has been far lagging behind that of southern Ghana by a century. Access to education and enrollment levels has with time not made significant progress at all levels including the secondary and tertiary levels. The 2003 Ghana Statistical Service Core Welfare Indicators Questionnaire (CWIQ) Survey indicated that access to secondary education was recorded at 7.9 percent in the Upper East Region as against 63.4 and 56.1 percentage in Greater Accra and Ashanti Regions respectively.

Invariably the lack of development in the three northern regions of Ghana is a major factor that significantly inhibits Ghana's development efforts. There is a whole gamut of sour perceptions and misconceptions about the people of northern descent in Ghana. Honestly, this is due to bad media and gross ignorance on the part of many others. This scenario is directly proportional to the perception of the West about Africans.

The imagery people have about a particular group of people or a geographical area impact a lot on how they view it as a tourism and investment destination. In today’s globalised marketplace the scramble for investment and tourism is intensifying and brands have become more often than not the conduits for communicating people’s identities.

Groups of people including countries all over the world are determining and re-shaping their identities as they compete with neighbours to woo investors, to gain power, influence and prestige. It is thus imperative for traditional rulers and the elite in an area like Northern Ghana that seeks technological and socio-economic transformation to adopt branding strategies to attract the desirable political, economic, cultural and social development.

Branding by a group of people from a particular geographical setting especially in contemporary times is not a novelty and should therefore not be a huge or burgeoning mission to accomplish. In fact traditional rulers and educated elites across the length and breadth of Ghana have embarked on this and are currently ripping the tangible and intangible benefits. Much needs to be done to disabuse the minds of many in order to reduce the negativities that fuel the perceptions such as chieftaincy and ethnic violence, insecurity, low productivity, poverty and deprived social amenities.

The above could be achieved when northerners resolve to put an end to ethnicity, the culture of impunity, political patronage, greed and self-vested interests. The North abounds in competent, wise and intelligent men and women of knowledge and integrity. However, these unique qualities over the years have not been translated and transmitted into higher forms of development because of the reasons aforementioned.

There was a time when it was the hope, wish and prayer of every responsible northerner living elsewhere within or outside the country that their wards are sent back home to be nurtured and groomed in the northern values and culture. It was integral to the legacy you bequeathed to your ward. Clearly you wanted them to imbibe the culture, tradition and values that made us the unique crop of people we are.

The leadership in Northern Ghana must be interested in the creation of a consistent and coherent system of identity in tandem with current trends in the global system. This is therefore a challenge for all northerners especially the youth because they constitute the leadership of the next generation and thus, the nucleus of the success or otherwise of such a generation. Posterity may not forgive the youth of northern Ghana wherever they may find themselves if they fail or renege in that regard. The northern youth ought to play a lead role in championing an attractive, consistent and coherent identity more than ever before by any group of people in Ghana.

Because it is perceived that Southern Ghana is way ahead in terms of development, thus we need to play a catch up. This is essential to bridging the north-south developmental gap.

Brand Northern Ghana should be an identity that is home grown, proactively distilled, well interpreted, internalized and projected on a national and global scale in order to gain both national and international acceptance and to create a positive regional image. The Northern brand strategy therefore should be an approach that seeks to defining the most pragmatic, most aggressive, most competitive and most persuasive tactical vision for the North.

Brand Northern Ghana would be very vital to the success of the Savanna Accelerated Development Strategy. It must harmonize and demonstrate clear, simple and differentiating propositions often built around emotional qualities expressing some kind of superior norms, and put premium on values and behavioural patterns which can be orally and visually symbolized in earnest.

The three regions need to achieve an appreciable level of unity of purpose and adopt a scheme of marketing know-how, in order to be able to establish actionable and measurable objectives and strategies, which are plausible for attracting the relevant tourism and investment.

The image problems of Northern Ghana perhaps are founded in the prevailing high illiteracy rates and the existing chieftaincy and ethnic conflicts. The illiteracy rate is quite disconcerting because an illiterate dominated society is likely not to resort to dialogue in order to resolve differences in interest but resort to brute measures. Also, the three regions according to some normative opinions are about half a century behind in development due to violent conflicts emanating from chieftaincy and ethnicity.

As such, for holistic rebranding of Northern Ghana to flourish, and in order for the Savanna Accelerated Development Agenda not to be an illusion, pragmatic actions must be adopted to lift a large proportion of the population of Northern Ghana out of the illiteracy cohort. Basically, there is the need to focus more on education, mental reorientation and awareness, and the integration of the ‘Can Do’ spirit in our developmental process.

This calls for a structural overhauling of the four campuses of the University for Development Studies to meet modern standards. The needed infrastructure and facilities must be provided by government and the University duly accredited to run all programmes including Law, Engineering, Architecture, Journalism and Communication Studies, and Business Administration as ran by its counterparts in Southern Ghana.

A well branded Northern Ghana requires a deliberate, vibrant and well coordinated and multifaceted communication system with capable and competent breed of journalists and public relations practitioners equipped with trends in modern marketing strategies and public relations. Well researched and truthful information about the three northern regions should be disseminated to the rest of the country and beyond to attract the required investment which will translate into rapid and revolutionary growth and development. This requires the a conscientious and concerted efforts of all stakeholders involve in the development of Northern Ghana and not the creation of another bureaucracy or parastatals in this regard.

The rhetoric and verbal homage should give way for action. Enough of the talk lets walk the talk.


Authour: MUHAMMED A. YAKUBU

YOUTH DEVELOPMENT PRACTITIONER AND A CONCERN NORTHERNER.

africansaphar@gmail.com
0244875783

TAMALE MAYOR SUBJECTS HIMSELF TO PUBLIC ASSESSMENT

The Tamale Metropolitan Chief Executive (MCE), Alhaji Abdulai Haruna Friday has subjected himself to public scrutiny and criticisms, as he holds a Town Hall Meeting to render accounts of his stewardship within the last two years to the Chiefs and people of Tamale.

The Objective of the Town Hall Meeting was to ensure transparency, accountability and democracy at the local level. Patrons of the event, included traditional authorities, heads of departments, NGOs, the media, technocrats and the general public.

However the MCE comprehensively itemized all developmental projects and other services rendered to the people within the last two years and explained how they were executed as well as the amount of money that went into all of them.

He also touched on education, health, security, tourism, water and sanitation, agriculture, job creation and good governance among others.

Alhaji Haruna Friday disclosed that close to 8,000 people have been employed by the government in the last two years, while private investors also keep running to Tamale due to the prevailing peace and good business atmosphere in the area.

The Assembly according to the Mayor has also been able to increase its revenue mobilization drive from 35 percent in 2008 to 105 percent in 2010.

However majority of the public were not happy about the news that Tamale now ranks 107 out of the 138 districts across Ghana in the BECE examination. There were equal opportunities for several people to ask critical questions, especially the personnel from the media.

Some journalists stirred up the emotions of the officials as they sought to find out what could be done by the Mayor to check non-functioning traffic lights, stray animals on the streets, decongest the city for free human and vehicular movement and most especially whether there are any plans by the assembly to continue the Tamale Beautification Project started by the past administration.

BACKGROUND CHECKS SERIOUSLY CONSIDERED IN NATIONWIDE POLICE RECRUITMENT

The Outgoing Director of Operations at the Ghana Police Service, DCOP Dr. Peter Wiredu has stated that the ongoing Police Recruitment Exercise would place much emphasis on digging deeply into the backgrounds of the applicants in order to stop people with criminal records from entering the service.

According to him, the Police Service was unhappy with the growing public perception that some uniform police officers either supply weapons and other logistics to or secretly aid armed robbers to carry out their operations for monetary gains.

Speaking to Savannahnews at the Tamale Police Park during the 6^th and last recruitment session, DCOP Wiredu even though did not readily admit the assertion- he maintained that the Police had the constitutional mandate to protect lives and property, but not to become aids to criminals.

He indicated that the Police Service in its quest to recruit over 16,000 police officers across Ghana between 2010 and 2014 would not compromise with the defined police recruitment procedures whatsoever.

DCOP Wiredu who now appointed as the incoming Immigration Commander said that punitive actions would be taken against applicants who would show any criminal intentions either by forging their examination or birth certificates to deceive the recruitment process.

“With the kind of training we are going to give to the new recruits at the Police Training School with the period of 6 months, any of them who has bad or criminal behavior will be exposed before the end of the training”.

On the other hand, the Outgoing Director of Operations assured Ghanaians of a very transparent and fair recruitment without any tribal or ethnic consideration.

So far, similar exercises have been held in Accra, Kumasi, Koforidua, Ho and Cape Coast with the intention of enlisting over 4000 new police personnel in addition to the existing 24,000 personnel.

In Tamale for instance, over 500 applicants are expected to go through the recruitment process with a qualification of four credits and a pass mark in English or Mathematics in the SSCE or WASSE examination.

Apart from checking their certificates and heights, the applicants will sit for examination and also go through a thorough medical examination before final enlistment can be effected.

However, Savannahnews discovered that this year’s recruitment exercise does not favour the women, as almost out of every 10 disqualified applicants, 7 or 8 were women (females), due to their shortness in height.

About 12 of the disqualified female applicants (names withheld) who spoke to the paper expressed disappointment in what they termed the “inflexibility in the recruitment procedures”.

One of the ladies from Ashanti Region (name withheld) who narrowly missed the height measurement at 5.3 feet instead of 5.4 feet jovially said her height should not had been a hindrance since she was physically strong and had more passion for the police work. The required height for the male is 5.8 feet and 5.4 feet for female.

But she was confident of qualifying in the next year’s recruitment since she is still 23 years and the age limit was at 25 years.

On why most females were being disqualified on a mere basis of height, DCOP Wiredu said that the Ghana Police Service was much concerned about the issue of gender and expected that more women would get equal chance into the service, but stated emphatically that the laid down procedures would not be compromised for anything.

Interestingly, there tens of people with BECE certificates who had also come from all over Ghana, hoping to be recruited in Tamale irrespective of their knowledge about the required qualification.

FEAR GRABS CEOs & MANAGERS OF TAMALE RADIO STATIONS AS NEW STATIONS PLAN POACHING

Rumours making rounds in the Tamale Metropolis have it that there is a probability of some top radio presenters and journalists working with some of the existing radio stations and serving as regional reporters for some daily newspapers in the nation’s capital, moving to take up new appointments at newly established radio stations, Might FM and Zaa Radio.

Information available with Savannahnews indicates that, four presenters of Radio Justice 98.5Mhz, two presenters of FIILA FM 89.3Mhz, correspondents of some daily newspapers, two presenters of Diamond FM 93.7Mhz, two presenters of Bishara Radio 97.7Mhz and correspondents of some Accra based radio stations could be poached by the management of Might FM 90.5 Mhz and Zaa Radio 99.3Mhz.

Although the two new stations are scheduled to start test transmission in a few weeks’ time, fear and panic has grabbed Chief Executive Officers and General Managers of the aforementioned radio stations as some of them have improved on their attitude towards their staff with a promise of better conditions of service.

Should the rumours become a reality, it would be the first time poaching has been done in the Northern Region by management of a new radio station or any media house. Poaching is very common in the Southern part of Ghana where experienced and famous presenters and journalists of electronic and print media houses are given such offers as cars, houses, scholarships, allowances, holidays abroad and attractive salaries by owners of newly established media companies in particular just to get them to work for them. But this phenomenon is very uncommon in the Northern sector of the country.

Ever since news broke about the establishment of the two private radio stations, Might FM which is to operate alongside a TV station, in the Savelugu-Nanton District and Zaa Radio in the Central Business District of Tamale, a section of the public as well as some radio personalities have expressed joy that, at least, the new development would further entrench the country's democracy and offer the people of the region more options to choose from the list of eight radio stations to listen to as they go about their daily activities.

Coupled with the excitement is their hope that the probable poaching would send shivers down the spines of owners of the already existing radio stations since most of them purportedly pay their workers "chicken feed". Besides, some are also wondering whether they would now be offered better deals by their management in order to let them stay where they are and not make any attempt to move to Might FM and or Zaa Radio when they are approached with mouth-watering and life-transforming deals.

Management of some of the old private radio stations including FIILA FM, Diamond FM, Radio Justice, NorthStar FM and Bishara Radio, except Radio Savannah which is State-owned, according to research, recruited unskilled or inexperienced presenters and journalists when they started as broadcasting stations.

Some management officials took undue advantage of these people after having realised their obsession for radio work and the readiness to work even when they are not paid for several months. Some pay their staff between GH¢50.00 and GH¢200.00 while, according to reliable information available with this reporter, the station owners make profits between GH¢10,000.00 and GH¢15,000.00 even after paying taxes, utility bills and other operational costs.

As the years go by, some of these amateur presenters and journalists sharpen their skills by going through formal training in some learning institutions whilst others attend workshops and seminars by themselves. These steps being taken by this crop of enthusiastic media practitioners have seen some significant amount of improvement in them in terms of skills and technical knowledge in radio broadcasting or journalism.

The Northern Region at present can boasts of eight commercial radio stations including the newly established ones like Might FM and Zaa Radio, two campus radio stations (Green FM at University for Development Studies, Nyankpala and Ridge FM at Tamale Polytechnic). The rest, which are community radio stations, include Simli Radio at Dalun in the Tolon-Kumbungu District, FUSION FM in Yendi Municipality and PAD FM in Damongo in the West Gonja District.

GROWING IRRESPONSIBLE JOURNALISM IN NORTHERN REGION

Editors and other Senior Journalists in the three Northern Regions have expressed their deepest disappointment at the growing irresponsible journalism practices among some practitioners in Ghana, and however attributed the situation to the failure of the National Media Commission (NMC) to secure better and deserving salaries for media practitioners.

The Editors, who blamed the Commission for not being proactive in previous years, said the NMC ought to have initiated a national policy to compel media owners and their partners to give better remunerations to their staff in order to discourage the Journalists from compromising on their professional code of ethics for monetary gains.

This came to light at a recent Media Forum organized in Tamale by the National Media Commission for Journalists in the three Northern Regions at the Mariam Hotel.

Even though the 1992 Constitution of Ghana speaks about the important role the media ought to play in ensuring the general wellbeing of Ghanaians (national unity, peace and development), yet nobody seems to be concerned about the welfare of Journalists in Ghana, hence majority of them using dubious means to survive.

Unlike in other African countries, more especially Nigeria, South Africa and Egypt where Journalists enjoy respectable salaries and are living in decent accommodations, most Ghanaian Journalists particularly those in the private media are still living below Two Dollars (US$2) a day.

Meanwhile, most of these Journalists are supposed to cater for the education of their children, pay house rent, utility bills and also feed their families.

What seems to make their case more pathetic or pitiable is the fact that Journalists are generally known to be the voice of the voiceless and the vulnerable, but they themselves are more vulnerable than those perceived as vulnerable in society.

The Ghanaian Journalists indeed are always good at advocating for salary increment for discontented workers of both private and public organizations. But the question now is: who speaks for the vulnerable Journalists?

It was discovered at the Forum that majority of Journalists working in the three Northern Regions as Correspondents to most Radio and Newspaper organizations in Accra and Kumasi are not given any fair treatment, which mostly forced some of them to forcibly demand monies from event organisors and District Chief Executives.

Conversely, the Chairman of the National Media Commission, Ambassador Kabral Blay Amihire who openly supported the concerns of the Journalists assured them of his plans to meeting all Directors and Managers of the media stations to discuss ways of improving the standard of journalism in Ghana and also sees to address the issue of poor condition of service.

The NMC Chairman also reiterated his resolve to establish a Media Development Fund (MDF) to assist media personnel and organizations to better manage their activities and sharpen their skills and again disclosed plans to establish Regional offices of the NMC throughout Ghana to ensure efficiency, monitoring and supervision.

Ambassador Kabral who has since his assumption of office been advocating for State funding of Private Media Houses in the country to enable them play their roles responsibly and responsively.

It is estimated that over 80 to 90% of the Private Media Stations in Ghana especially the electronic ones are extremely under resourced, and thus they frequently flout the basic rules of journalism by either failing to cross-check, follow up, ensure balancing or even employ competent personnel and pay them well.

Ambassador Kabral who warned the Ghanaian Journalists against compromising their professional standards and ethics, maintained that the NMC was committed to the promotion of responsible and accountable journalism in Ghana.

He vehemently blamed the media for becoming alarmists and unnecessarily meddling in partisan politics at the detriment of their core duty as agenda setters.

The NMC Chairman on the other hand, pleaded with Ghanaian Journalists to be the first to defend the media freedom enshrined in the Chapter 12 of the 1992 constitution.

For her part, Dr. Audrey Gadzekpo, a member of the commission urged the Ghanaian media to transcend on their limitations and persevere to become icons in their profession. She complained that topical issues underpinning the development of rural areas have been under-reported by the Ghanaian media and urged them to place premium on rural reporting.

Dr. Gadzekpo also underscored the need for the modern storage of journalism materials particularly articles since in her observation, most media houses in Ghana lacked storage facilities. The Vice Chairman of the Northern Regional branch of GJA, Yakubu Abdul Majeed cited the influx of “Quack Journalists” in the media landscape as one of the factors that had contributed to the denigration of the profession in many circles.

He noted that despite the challenges of inadequate facilities, lack of personnel and resources, media practitioners in the three regions had tremendously held public office holders accountable for their stewardship and had given voice to the voiceless in society.

Mr. Majeed however appealed to the NMC and GJA national to consider putting up a Press Centre in Tamale to serve the Northern Sector Journalists.

EXPERT RECOMMENDS STRICT COMPLIANCE ON ECOWAS TRADE POLICIES

An independent International Trade Expert, Rowland Aggor, has observed that since the formation of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) regional grouping over three decades ago, its mission to promote economic integration is still faced with a lot of challenges.

According to him, non-compliance by some Member States to grant zero duty rate to approved products, prohibitions and ban on community goods by some member states, higher administrative charges (legal and illegal) at border posts and check points, cumbersome implementation and clearance procedures at the borders and ports, among others are seriously frustrating business men and women and also breeding unnecessary hatred and conflict among citizens of member states.

Speaking at a two-day sensitisation and information workshop on international trade issues in Tamale with emphasis on ECOWAS Trade Liberalisation Scheme (ETLS) and its implementation challenges and other ECOWAS protocols, ECOWAS Common External Tariff (CET), the Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) and other topical issues, Mr. Aggor recommended strict compliance and respect for ECOWAS trade policies by all member states in order to ensure free movement of goods and people as enshrined in the ECOWAS Constitution.

He called for the institution of a mechanism to forestall the unilateral imposition of ban on imports by any member country, continuous sensitisation of economic operators, civil society organisations and border operatives and establishment of ECOWAS Desk and complaint unit at the borders.

Mr. Aggor also recommended learning of both official languages like English and French by border operatives (Customs, Excise and Preventive Service and Immigration Officials), removal of all non-tariff barriers to trade, among others.

However, participants expressed dissatisfaction about the participation of retail businesses by foreigners from neighbouring countries like Niger (Zambarama) and Nigeria (Ibos and Yorubas) saying it is an affront on the ECOWAS and Ghana’s trade regulations.

They asked government to strictly enforce the laws of in order to save businesses of Ghanaians from total collapse.

ECOWAS was founded in May 28th, 1975, with the signing of the Lagos Treaty. Its mission is to promote economic integration. In 1976 Cape Verde joined ECOWAS, and in December 2000 Mauritania withdrew having announced its intention to do so in December 1999.

Current members include Benin, Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, Côte d'Ivoire, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea-Bissau, Liberia, Mali, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone and Togo excluding Guinea, Niger and Cote d’Ivoire suspended after 2008, 2009 and 2010 coup d'état, auto-coup and political instability respectfully.

The regional body’s aims and objectives are to generate self-sustaining economic growth through collective action in all fields of social and economic activities and create a fully integrated and internationally competitive region where goods, services, capital, labour and persons move freely.

The region has a total land area of about 5.7million square kilometers, population of 261.8 (2006 estimates), inflation of 5.7% (2004 estimates), total GDP U$ 389,519 Billion (2005 estimates), Per Capita $7,890 in 2005, Total Exports of US$ 70 billion-2009 estimates down from about US$ 106 billion in 2008 and Intra ECOWAS trade about $6 billion-2009 estimates, according to ECOWAS website.

Since Ghana started participating in ETLS about 266 registered companies have been involved in various kinds of trade in the sub-region.

ACLP PROJECT GOES THROUGH NATIONWIDE VALIDATION

The Ascertainment and Codification of Customary Law Project (ACLP), which started in 2007 by the National House of Chiefs (NHC) in collaboration with the Law Reform Commission (LRC) to undertake research to ascertain the customary law on land and family in various traditional areas in Ghana and to codify, has organised a regional validation workshop in the Northern Region.

The two-day workshop, held in Tamale, was intended to validate responses gathered in two traditional areas namely Gonja and Mamprugu Traditional Areas where field research has been conducted from 2009. This follows validation workshops organised separately in the two Traditional Areas. The regional validation workshop is part of series of workshops being conducted in all ten regions of Ghana.

Within the period indicated above, a team of researchers conducted interviews with Paramount Chiefs, Divisional Chiefs, Female Traditional Leaders, Indigenes and Settler Farmers as well as Persons with Disability, Land-related Institutional Heads and other informants.

According to the Executive Secretary of the project, Mrs. Sheila Minkah-Premo, the ACLP is a Joint Research Project established by the NHC and LRC with support from the German Development Cooperation (GTZ). She explained that, the purpose of the ACLP is the ascertainment and codification of the customary law rules and practices on land and family in Ghana.

“A Joint Steering Committee (JSC), with membership from the two collaborating institutions, was established to commence the project implementation since year 2006,” she said, adding that the JSC was represented by Professor Kofi Quarshiga, Dean of Law Faculty, University of Ghana, Dr. Henry S. Daannaa, Director of Research, Ministry of Chieftaincy and Culture, both of the JSC members.

Mrs. Menkah-Premo said it is obvious that even though customary law is an important source of law in Ghana, what constitutes customary law in a particular community is not always clear. The impact of this uncertainty she noted, is most prominent and evident in two areas of law which affect the most significant facets of national life in Ghana: family law and land law.

She was optimistic that the final output of the project will make land and family law certain and this will assist in the settlement of disputes and bring more transparency in land and family transactions which will aid development. It will also deepen the decentralisation process, she observed.

Land transactions in Ghana are beset with conflicts between the customary practices, rules and norms on one hand, and the formal and statutory law on the other. Customary lands, which include lands owned by stools, skins, clans, families, tendamba and among others, form a significant percentage of all lands in Ghana. This state of affairs reinforces the need for the ascertainment and codification of customary law rules applicable to particular communities in Ghana.

The project represents the very first initiative taken towards the fulfillment of the constitutional mandate given to the NHC to undertake the progressive study, interpretation and codification of customary law with a view to evolving, in appropriate cases, a unified system of rules of customary law in Article 272 (b) of the 1992 Constitution and sections 49-56 of the Chieftaincy Act, 2008 (Act 759). The Law Reform, which is a key partner in the project, also has statutory mandate to promote law reform in Ghana and review all the laws, both statutory and otherwise, with a view to facilitate its systematic development and reform, she added.

National Research Coordinator of the ACLP project, Thomas Tagoe, explained that the project is being undertaken in three phases with phase one having two traditional areas being selected based on merit from each of the ten administrative regions of Ghana. During this phase, literature review will be undertaken on customary land and family law and a methodology developed for the collection of data, he said.

According to him, in the second phase, additional variations of customary laws from about 30 traditional areas in the ten regions will be collected on land and family law.

Mr. Tagoe stated that within the third and final stage of the project, it is expected that consultations will be held with traditional leaders from other traditional areas, which were not involved in the process of data collection, to give them opportunity to review the findings of the ascertained customary law and eventually the declaration of rules of customary law and harmonisation of uniform rules.

Currently, Offinso and Tepa in the Ashanti, Duayaw Nkwanta and Nkoranza in Brong-Ahafo, Eguafo and Assin Attandanso in Central, Akuapem and Yilo Krobo in Eastern, Kpone and Osudoku in Greater Accra, Gonja and Mamprusi in Northern, Bolga and Paga in Upper East, Kaleo and Nandom in Upper West, Asogli and Kete Krachi in Volta and Lower Axim and Sefwi Chirano in the Western Regions are places where research on the ACLP has been conducted for ascertainment and codification.