The Office of the Administrator of Stool Lands, a department under the Lands Ministry has joined the Ministry’s digitalisation drive with the launch of its Revenue Application in collaboration with GIZ, a German Based Cooperation in Ghana.
The OASL Revenue App is a web-based application purpose-built with functionalities and tools to enable data collection, billing, revenue collection and payments.
The Application is built on street address maps from MMDAs, OASL Revenue tables and details of the respective OASL district offices.
Speaking at the launch which was organised on the sidelines of the Ghana Digital Innovation Week, the Deputy Minister for Lands and Natural Resources, responsible for Lands and Forestry, Benito Owusu-Bio congratulated the Office for the initiative, saying that he was pleased the OASL RevApp has joined the digital transformation journey of Ghana.
The Deputy Minister acknowledged the government’s efforts in digitalisation indicating that “Through the capable hands of the Vice President, HE Alhaji Dr Mahamudu Bawumia, the Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo administration has been taking very aggressive steps to hasten the nation’s transition from a predominantly paper system to a paperless system, by leveraging technology to streamline many Government processes”
He noted that all these efforts by government have yielded significant advantages, necessitating the need for government agencies to transition their operations to a digital platform in order to increase accessibility, accountability, and revenue mobilization.
Owusu-Bio alluded that in the past, the many manual challenges of the OASL restricted their operations but hoped that with this software, field operations will be automated, and the scope of coverage of the Office’s operations will be expanded, which will ultimately optimize revenue collection and management.
He was also of the positive view that the OASL’s present digitalization of operations will enable the office to accomplish more in these areas, describing the event as a revolutionary one.
He entreated the staff of the OASL to take advantage of the initiative to learn all there is to know about this software and make optimum use of it to raise revenue for the socio-economic development of our country Ghana.
The Chairman of the occasion and Chief of Adusena in the Eastern Region, Nana Dr Boni Abankro V in his address applauded the efforts of the OASL and GIZ for coming up with such an initiative which he termed as a “tremendous achievement” among others collate the country’s land revenues properly.
He said he is now confident and has no doubts the OASL can indeed manage the country’s lands, urging occupants of the stools and families to have trust in the OASL to deliver on the job.
He proposed to the government and the Ministry to rob OASL in the fight against illegal mining as they are mostly in constant contact with traditional authorities in the various districts and regions of Ghana.
Mrs Maame Ama Edumadze-Acquah, the Administrator of Stool Lands, in her submission said over the years the Office has been searching for sustainable and smart ways of enhancing stool lands revenue mobilisation through the use of modern technology and therefore the introduction of this App is a dream come true and has rendered their manual operations, obsolete.
She said her Office has boldly embraced the digitalisation drive to address the numerous limitations of its operations and recognize the need for database development, rent assessment, revenue collection and management.
She appreciated the GIZ team for their efforts and financial support in ensuring the realisation of their dream of digitalising Revenue collection “We are very grateful for your immense support and efforts, you have given us all we need to make this App work and you are still with us helping train our staff do better and for this we are thankful”
The App she said is expected to present a Modern digital solution for the end-to-end revenue operations of OASL while urging all to support her outfit on their new venture of digitalising operations, specifically revenue collection and mobilisation.
Raphael Frerking, the Program Manager of Governance for Inclusive Development at GIZ on his part, said GIZ supported OASL with the development of the Revenue Application, and the OASL Portal, which allows citizens to manage payments for their Ground rent and other royalties based on the traditional land law.
The GIZ Program Manager further elaborated that the GIZ also supports the rollout of these applications to all 14 regional offices of OASL by training a core team to implement the roll-out, adding that 9 out of the 14 roll out have already been done and looks forward to complete the task with the 5 regions left.
He indicated that aside OASL, his outfit has also supported the digitisation of revenue management processes for several other organisations in the last 10 years.
