It is estimated that about eighty percent (80%) of Ghana’s land tenure system is under customary administration under the management of Traditional Authorities. The territory of customary lands governed by Traditional Leaders are called Traditional Areas and each Traditional Authority has a defined territory which constitutes its jurisdiction. It is within the jurisdictional area that various customary land transactions occur under the leadership of Traditional Authorities in the traditional area. What this means is that a successful land transaction will require knowledge of the traditional area jurisdiction and the system of administration. Public access to information on the traditional area jurisdiction and the system of customary land administration is therefore crucial for facilitating land access, land acquisition and engagements on land policy processes.

Data on traditional areas in Ghana is, however, not publicly available. At best, one can find some information from informal sources and in most cases, such information may be scanty and not well organized.   

In 2019, COLANDEF started a project focused on the compilation and publicization of information on traditional areas in Ghana. The COLANDEF Team is building the data from the scratch, using a systematic approach to gather information on each of the traditional areas in Ghana through direct engagements with key stakeholders on the ground.Since the first publication in 2019, the Team has gathered additional information which calls for the 2019 publication to be updated. This document is therefore the second edition of the publication of data on Traditional Areas in Ghana and updates the one published in 2019.