Online digital land registry on the cards to prevent corruption

The Government is establishing an on-line digital land registry, on a designated website and report on progress in implementing published plan for registering/titling all state land.

This action is to be taken by the government on the directions of the International Monetary Fund (IMF).  

Unveiling this new land registration initiative, a high official of the Lands Ministry said that state authorities are reviewing existing laws on state-owned lands in the extent of 82 per cent of available land to broad-base ownership.

Currently, there are 50 district land registries managed by the Registrar General’s Department of the Ministry of Public Administration with the responsibility of registering land rights under both the deeds and title registration systems.

There are around 2 million land transactions registered per year in the deed system, he said adding that however, there are multiple deficiencies – one being that registration of deeds does not actually prove title to the land.

Therefore, registration is not accepted as evidence for collateral purposes by reputable financial institutions which would require title reports attested by an accredited lawyer.

A high official of the Justice Ministry said that this means in practice there was no legal certainty on the validity of a registered deed.

There were instances of duplicate records being made on the same plot of land, multiple fake deeds in circulation, land grabbing and bribes and commission seeking practice.

Land data repositories are fragmented across the different agencies involved in land administration and there is no common platform to integrate or access data.

Each agency keeps their data in silos, often replicated and not verified and therefore not useful in decision making processes. (Bandula)