The Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development (MLGRD) and Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA) as one part and Swedesurvey as the other part has signed a contract regarding a continuation and up-scaling of technical assistance for design and development of an Urban Management Land Information System (UMLIS). Swedesurvey will work closely together with AMA and the local partner, Geo-Tech Systems Ltd in this three year project in Accra, Ghana.

The local assemblies in Ghana are responsible for providing clean and healthy environment and public infrastructure for the citizens. Due to financial and technical means the assemblies often fail to fulfil their responsibilities. Property rates constitute a substantial part of the total revenue for local assemblies, but the collection of property rates is often not efficient. The UMLIS pilot project started in November 2005 with the objectives to strengthen the local authorities by increasing capacity and competence and by supporting development of UMLIS as a tool for efficient collection of property rates. The project owner was MLGRD in co-operation with AMA.

In 2009 UMLIS was tested in a pilot scale in Accra. UMLIS constitutes a map component, and an application for building registration and generation of property rates bills and registration of payments. A real life test of UMLIS was carried out. About 40 % of the expected amount from property rates in the test area has so far been collected using UMLIS.  In addition illustrated maps from the system can identify areas where the revenue collection is low and where action needs to be taken. The property owners are in general pleased with the new billing system and its geographic component and how the system will benefit them in terms of knowing how much their community/block is paying in relation to the services they require. UMLIS has been developed to be scalable and there is a large potential to add other functionalities in the system. UMLIS will for example be a good platform for an address system in Accra, which is prioritised both at central and district level. To be able to benefit from the invested money a full scale implementation of UMLIS is necessary. A concept paper describing a technical solution and an estimated budget for a full scale implementation of UMLIS in Accra has been developed within the pilot project.