A ten-man delegation of the Gambian land stakeholders from the Gambian Ministry of Lands and Regional Affairs, the National Assembly and the City of Banjul are on a week-long study tour, from Sunday 9th December through Saturday 13th December 2025, to the National Land Commission, Sierra Leone, to study the implementation models used which now factor in Sierra Leone’s globally acclaimed inclusive land laws.
The team was comprised of key stakeholders, including the Permanent Secretary, Gambian Ministry of Lands Brima Sisawo; a representative from the Gambian National Assembly, Honourable Alhaji Husseinu Dabor; Governor of Banjul City Ebrima Jawo; director of surveys Dawda Fatty; lands valuation officer Jainaba Ceesay; Principal Planner Dr. Sambe Sowe; and Director of the Department of Physical Planning and Housing, Amadou Daffeh.
On Monday, 9th December 2025, a meeting was held in the headquarters of the National Land Commission Aberdeen, during which the Director of Surveys, Ministry of Lands, Housing and Country Planning, Tamba Dauda, delivered a presentation which detailed the recommendations of the 2015 National Land Policy, including a call to legislate new laws to replace defunct old land laws, which do not guarantee secure land tenure.
The 2015 National Land Policy, he said, called for the setup of a separate commission to handle all land administrative functions, from surveys and maintenance of a land registry to the issuance of title to land as a one-stop shop, in a bid to eradicate the high level of land maladministration, including but not limited to double and triple selling of the same lands, fake land site numbers, falsification of signatures and utter documentation fraud, which had culminated in an increasing number of land litigations in our courts.
As part of their engagements, the team met with the Minister and Deputy Minister of Lands, Housing and Country Planning (MLHCP) later on Monday, 9th December 2025.
The ministerial discussions were centred around the ongoing land reforms and how the Gambia can learn from Sierra Leone’s inclusive land reform processes, which embrace all Paramount Chiefs who are the rightful custodians of over 98.8 percent of all the land space in Sierra Leone.
Discussions were also held with the project coordinator of the Sierra Leone Land Administration Project (SLLAP), Dr Alphajor Cham.
Dr Cham dilated on key components of the land reform process from the inception stage in 2012, when the UN-FAO Voluntary Guidelines on the Responsible Governance of Tenure (VGGT) were endorsed. He reiterated the transformative recommendations of the 2015 National Land Policy, which heightened the need to enact legislation for a one-stop shop entity to manage all land administrative functions as a mitigating structure against land maladministration.
On Tuesday 10th December, a meeting was convened at the Commission’s headquarters in Aberdeen, where the delegation met staff of the Commission.
Commissioner General of NLC Abu-B Sappay Foray-Musa presented a clear view of the processes which led to the setup of the Commission with specific reference to the inclusion of paramount chiefs, non-state actors, donors such as the UN-FAO and the World Bank, and land-aligned ministries, agencies, and departments (MDAs), which factors for the successful enactment of our twin laws, the National Land Commission and the Customary Land Rights Acts of 2022. He added that the 2015 National Land Policy lay dormant for years until it was revived by the erstwhile Minister of Lands, Dr Turade Senesie, which culminated in twin laws now acclaimed as the most inclusive land laws in Africa.
On Wednesday 10th December the delegation paid a courtesy call to the Attorney General & Minister of Justice Alpha Sesay Esq, his deputy Saptieu Sankoh Esq and other top personnel of the Ministry. This was followed by a visit to the Office of the Administrator and Registrar General (OARG). During a courtesy call to PC Bai Forki Fainka of Marforki Chiefdom, Port Loko District, the Paramount Chief called on the team to ensure they engage all paramount chiefs and women. This, he reiterated, is a good foundation to build any land reform. The team later proceeded to the Bathpolon section of the district, where pilot land mapping of lands has been carried out, and engaged landowners, users and traditional leaders in the community.
Head of the Gambian delegation, Ebrima Sisawo, observed that by engaging all land stakeholders, they understand the strengths and challenges which factor into progress made by the Commission. He further highlighted that the meeting with the Administrator General presented one of the challenges which they would consider in the land reform process of the Gambian Land Commission, which has been defunct.
The Governor of Banjul City, Ebrima Jawo, said their visits were a learning experience which would help them in their ongoing land reform processes, as the Gambia and Sierra Leone have similar land administrative structures, which were inherited from our British colonial masters.
Read Also: Internal Affairs Minister urges LUCs to Maintain Discipline during Festive Season
As per the delegation, the Gambia now has a land policy which the government will start implementing in January 2026, and in this vein needs to learn from sister nations with commissions in order to grasp the strategies used and the challenges to ensure the Gambian model does not replicate those shortfalls, which are the reasons for some of the challenges the Sierra Leone National Land Commission is facing.
Crucial to these shortfalls, in the context of Sierra Leone, is not repealing some laws to guarantee that the Commission works as a one-stop shop, and the overarching success is Sierra Leone’s inclusion of Paramount Chiefs, civil society organisations and women as integral participants of the entire land reform process.
