The Office of the Administrator of Stool Lands (OASL) has launched a digital revenue platform to improve on revenue mobilisation.
Dubbed ‘Revenue App’ and developed in collaboration with German Development Cooperation (GIZ) Ghana, it was purposely built with functionalities and tools to enable data collection, billing, revenue collection and payments.
The application features street address, maps of the various Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies (MMDAs), OASL Revenue tables and details of the respective OASL district offices.
Launching the revenue application on the sidelines of this year’s Ghana Digital Innovation Week in Accra on Friday, Deputy Minister of Lands and Natural Resources, Benito Owusu-Bio, said the OASL was the latest national institution to digitalise operations to ensure efficiency.
He said the government was aggressively pursuing digitalisation in all spheres of the economy to hasten the nation’s transition from a predominantly paper system to paperless by leveraging technology to streamline many government processes.
Digitalisation, he noted, mostly yielded significant advantages, hence the need for government agencies to transition their operations to a digital platform to increase accessibility, accountability and revenue mobilisation.
Mr Owusu-Bio stated that previously, the many manual challenges of the OASL restricted their operations, but expressed hope that with the revenue application, field operations would be automated, and the scope of coverage of the Office’s operations would be expanded leading to enhanced revenue collection and management.
“I am positive that the OASL’s present digitalisation of operations will enable the office to accomplish much more in the various areas of it operation,” he added.
He entreated the staff of the OASL to take advantage of the revenue application to maximise their operations for increased revenue for the socio-economic development of the country.
Chief of Adusena in the Eastern Region, Nana Dr Boni Abankro V, applauded the efforts of the OASL and GIZ for coming up with the application to, among others, collate the lands revenue properly.
He said the platform positions the OASL to effectively manage lands in the country and urged occupants of stools and family lands to work with the OASL for desired results.
Mrs Maame Ama Edumadze-Acquah, Administrator of Stool Lands, said the Office had embraced the digitalisation drive to address numerous limitations of it operations, which include database development, rent assessment, revenue collection and management.
The revenue application, she said, was expected to present a modern digital solution to the end-to-end revenue operations of OASL.
Raphael Frerking, the Programmes Manager, Governance for Inclusive Development at GIZ, said the Revenue Application would allow Ghanaians to manage payments for their ground rent and other royalties based on the traditional land laws.
BY CLAUDE NYARKO ADAMS
