Compliance with land use regulations in peri-urban areas in Ghana: a study of Bamahu and Danko residential areas in Wa municipality, Upper West Region

Globally, there is a sharp increase in human population in urban areas resulting to competition for land for settlement. With pressure on urban land, compliance with land use planning guidelines over the years has been a major challenge, especially in the developing world where land use policies are still not entrenched and efficient. This study aims to assess compliance with land use regulations in peri-urban areas in Ghana with Bamahu and Danko residential areas in the Upper West Region of Ghana as the case. The study recruited 199 landlords using a simple random sampling approach and stakeholder purposive sampling techniques to recruit one officer each from the Wa Municipal Assembly, Lands Commission and Land Use and Spatial Planning Authority. Using a descriptive and thematic analytical approaches to analyze the data, the results revealed that majority of the respondents did not have building permits or site plans before putting up their buildings. The results indicated that economic, institutional, legal and social factors determined the level of compliance with land use planning guidelines in peri-urban Wa. The results further revealed that, there is a significant relationship between acquisition of building plans and site plans with compliance with land use planning guidelines. Most importantly, the study observed that, compliance with land use planning guidelines takes away the fear of legal action by the State against land developers and enhances efficiency in tax administration and prevention of conflicts among landlords and tenants. To sanitize the system for better compliance with land use planning guidelines in Bamahu and Danko, there is the need for the Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources to educate landlords and minimize the bureaucracies that accompany the acquisition of relevant documents in relation to compliance with land use planning guidelines. Again, the Wa Municipal Assembly, the Land Use and Spatial Planning Authority and Lands Commission in the Region should intensify their monitoring to ensure that landlords and property developers adhere to land use policies within the Municipality.