Technology is helping to protect people from falling victim to scammers who deceive buyers through false claims of ownership or forged documents, according to the National Land Authority (NLA).

Marie-Grâce Nishimwe, the Director General of NLA, told The New Times that several measures have been put in place to prevent fraudsters from manipulating land transactions.

ALSO READ: Electronic land certificates will curb frauds - NLA

According to Nishimwe, "Information about land ownership is easily accessible to the public through mobile phones using the USSD code *651#, and landowners receive SMS alerts whenever land transactions occur, to keep them informed about the status of their immovable property.

After dialling the code, you are required to enter a Unique Parcel Identifier (UPI) number for a plot in question to be able to access information related to it.

The system helps to verify the ownership of the plot, or to find out whether it is mortgaged or has a warning attached to it.

It allows legitimate owners to inquire in case they receive a suspicious message, Nishimwe observed.

There is also a land information inquiry portal that offers swift access to vital land data, including property ownership details and land classifications. It is accessible on https://amakuru.lands.rw/. A service seeker must first register and then login to it to be able to use it.

"Nowadays, notaries have systems that provide individual data, including images, which discourage scammers,” Nishimwe said, pointing out that a challenge arises when they falsely claim to have received a power of attorney from a land owner.

But, she said, that challenge is surmountable, indicating that in case there is doubt about the validity of documents, notaries often contact the person who granted the power of attorney to verify their legitimacy.

By using such an approach, she said, "Notaries have been very effective in catching scammers,” and NLA is collaborating with Irembo – a portal for accessing government services online – to enhance platforms that help scale up efforts to address such issues.

ALSO READ: Rwanda to deploy new system for improved land services

Nishimwe said that there is still a challenge where people fail to verify information before purchasing land, which can result in fraudulent transfer of land ownership.

She advised people to use the available technological systems to ascertain land ownership before buying plots.

In January 2023, NLA introduced electronic certificates of land registration to eliminate the use of hard copies or physical land title deeds.

According to NLA, apart from ensuring efficiency in service delivery, electronic certificates of land registration or e-titles help to ascertain ownership as they allow verification using the required identification including UPI.