Ethiopia will copy Rwanda’s land registration process because it is efficient and cheap.

Tigistu G. Abza, the Ethiopian Director of Rural Land Administration and Use Directorate, was impressed by the system after a one-week study tour in the country.
Ethiopia applies a traditional method of registering land, using rope for measurements, he said.

"The government thought it better to shift to the modern method and we were referred by the World Bank to come here to learn about Rwanda’s system,” said Tigistu.
Rwanda uses the digital land registration which saves time.

"This aerial photography method seems to be efficient, cheap and quick to carry out,” he underscored.

An alternative for this method is the geographic information system, which also requires cars for transport and surveyors to measure plots.

"The aerial photographic method, where we use airplanes to take a photo of an area, costs $7 per plot of land. In the geographic information system one plot costs $30,” Didier G. Sagasha, the Deputy Director General of National Land Centre (NLC), told The New Times.

He noted that national registration has so far has cost 3 million Euros. According to statistics from NLC, 45 percent of the country has been demarcated.

"We want to complete the land registration operation by 2013,” said Sagasha.

The exercise, which began two years ago, aims at helping the government deal with land disputes. It is also gives people confidence to invest in land.

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