By Haddy Touray
Land disputes account for about 62 percent of cases before courts in The Gambia, according to Lands Minister Hamat N.K. Bah, who says the government is introducing reforms aimed at reducing conflicts over land ownership and easing pressure on the judiciary.
Speaking on GRTS Radio, Bah, who is also Minister of Local Government and Religious Affairs, said the high volume of land-related cases was consuming significant judicial resources that could otherwise be devoted to other matters.
He said the government was working to establish a specialized High Court dedicated exclusively to land disputes.
“This should start soon; the retired chief justice already set up the committee for the court,” Bah said.
The minister described land disputes as a potential threat to social stability, citing growing pressure over land ownership and use in the country.
He said addressing land conflicts was among his priorities upon assuming responsibility for the ministry, leading to the development of a comprehensive national land policy.
According to Bah, the policy, developed with support from the World Bank, came into effect on January 1st , 2026, and represented the country’s first comprehensive national land policy since independence.
The government is also developing a Land Information System aimed at creating digital records of landholdings across the country.
Bah said the system would help reduce multiple allocations, competing ownership claims and fraudulent land transactions.
“This will create a proper record of every land in the country; it will be digitalized,” he said, adding that World Bank-supported consultants were working on the system, with a draft expected by the end of September.
He said the government was also digitising its land-record archives and expanding formal land titling, including for privately owned homes, to provide clearer evidence of ownership.
A pilot land-titling programme has begun in the West Coast Region, which Bah identified as having the highest concentration of land disputes in the country.
The reforms come amid longstanding concerns over multiple sales of properties, overlapping allocations, inadequate documentation and disputed land ownership.
Bah said the government’s broader objective was to establish a more transparent and reliable land administration system that would provide clear ownership records and reduce disputes before they reach the courts.
He said the new policy, digital land records and expanded titling program would make it more difficult for individuals to deceive buyers or use positions of influence to take control of land belonging to others.
The minister said strengthening land administration was not only a matter of property management but also an important measure to prevent land-related disputes from becoming a wider source of social instability.