Reaping the benefits of land titles

Equality:Women now enjoy as much rights to land as menBENEFITS of the land registration process, which was launched four years ago, have begun to be realised. Beneficiaries of the process, who have spoken to The New Times, say it has made their lives easier.A beneficiary of the registration, Jerome Mfitumukiza, a resident of Kibaza cell, Kacyiru sector, Gasabo District said it had enabled him acquire a bank loan for developing the land. The 48-year old father of five operates a hardware store and is currently expanding his retail business after getting the loan.Mfitumukiza stated that before land registration, it was difficult to prove ownership of the land, as it was viewed generally as public property.“I had no land title and I even feared to sell part of my plot since I did not have any document to prove that it was my land which I inherited from my parents,” he said.The land registration process, which is coordinated by Rwanda Natural Resources Authority (RNRA), is still ongoing across the country, and is set to be complete by December 2013.Article 30 of the Organic Land Law makes land registration mandatory.It also allows land owners to get legal documents and assume full rights over land, which increases their land security tenure. Didier Sagashya, the Deputy Director-General, RNRA, said the programme aims at improving land tenure security by putting in place an efficient, transparent and equitable system of land administration.“Land reforms mean more credit and fewer disputes because land is one of the most important assets in our country. Ownership is benefiting Rwandans a lot because some people are using their land as collateral to get loans from financial institutions,” he said. Sagashya said the Authority has so far demarcated and adjudicated on nine million parcels of land countrywide.“The process offers proof of land ownership and protection against encroachment. It helps identify landholdings, simplifies their ownership records and makes management easier,” he noted.Land demarcation and adjudication is set for completion by June next year while the issuance of land titles is set to be completed by December 2013.Wilson Ngendahimana, a resident of Kagarama sector, Kicukiro District, told The New Times that land registration has ensured security for landowners, a factor he said has encouraged most landowners to invest on their plots by accessing bank loans more easily.“I am currently constructing residential houses on the piece of land I registered. I expect to generate a decent income from rent once they are complete,” he said.In order to ensure proper land management and maintenance of land certificates issued to landholders during land registration, the RNRA Registrar of Land Titles introduced a Land Administration Information System (LAIS), a web-based tool which is developed based on procedures that are provided for by the Ministerial decree determining modalities of land registration.LAIS was introduced to create a more efficient, cost effective, quick and transparent land registration processes. Willy Ndizeye, the mayor of Gasabo District, observed that registering land enables people to think up new ways that will make their land more productive since they now have full rights over it.“In my district, the process (registration) is ongoing smoothly and the people who missed the first phase of registration were given a deadline of one month,” he said.Ndizeye further said that the registration exercise has helped to resolve land disputes among the people in his district. But while the registration has helped solve disputes amongst people, some families fail to agree on sharing their pieces of land.RNRA has so far registered 8,000 families with land disputes for resolution. Jeanne Nyirarukundo, a resident of Kacyiru sector, Gasabo District, said: “I feel safe after registering my land; I can use it for any business transaction. I can sell or use my land as collateral to acquire a bank loan to expand my business.”Nyirarukundo said that before the land registration process was introduced in the country, she had no concrete proof of her land ownership.Equal rights Jean Baptiste Habyarimana, the Mayor of Nyamasheke District told The New Times in an interview that people in his district are fully participating in the land registration process due to the huge economic benefits that come with land ownership.“The process has covered 88 per cent in my district; only two sectors are yet to be covered; those who have finished registering their land are waiting for the issuance of titles,” he said.In 2004, the government formulated a national land policy that will help guarantee a safe and stable form of land tenure. Before then, Rwanda had never had a proper land policy, according to officials.In order to define and decide how the land registration process should be carried out, a ministerial decree determining modalities of registration was enacted in 2008, with land registration process getting underway a year later.Meanwhile, women and children are among the biggest beneficiaries of the land registration process, The New Times has learnt.Erie Nizeyimana, a senior legal advisor with Haguruka, a local NGO that advocates for disadvantaged groups, particularly women and children, said that the land registration exercise has helped women and children to lay claim on their land and inheritance rights. “Women and children are also catered for (in the registration process) just like any other citizens. We have moved away from the days when a man could sell the family’s land without his wife’s consent through a signature,” he said yesterday. “They are enjoying equal rights as others.”“Under the current law, men are no longer the ultimate controllers of family property, particularly land,” he added.

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Reaping the benefits of land titles