Over 12,000 Mbarara City residents to get free land titles

 Government is set to give out 12,644 freehold land titles to residents of Biharwe and Nyakayojo in Mbarara City.

The move is aimed at protecting them against evictions and improving their livelihoods.

The beneficiaries are from the wards of Bugashe, Kichwamba, Rwakishakizi and Katojo in Mbarara City south and Nyabuhama and Rwenjeru wards in Mbarara City north.

Mbarara City Land Board chairperson Francis Barabanawe said working with the lands ministry, they were able to approve the residents’ applications for these titles under the Systematic Land Adjudication and Certification (SLAAC) programme.

“A total of 801 freehold titles have so far been issued to the beneficiaries. We are optimistic that this project will not only protect the beneficiaries’ land but also improve their livelihoods and welfare through accessing credit from banking institutions using these titles as mortgage,” he told Mbarara city mayor Robert Kakyebezi in his annual performance report for last year, a copy of which New Vision has seen.

Barabanawe stated that this is expected to encourage investment, fight poverty and promote local economic development of the entire City.

He said his board performed this task of approving the 12,644 applicants guided by the lands ministry and Mbarara city physical planning committee.

“Relevant procedures, laws and regulations were followed,” he told Kakyebezi, who has already forwarded the report to the land ministry.

Barabanawe said the beneficiaries will receive these titles by the end of the SLAAC project, which is an initiative of the Government of Uganda through the lands ministry with help from the World Bank.

“This project is aimed at demarcating and issuing certificates of freehold titles to all beneficiaries in the selected parishes/wards in order to enhance land tenure security,” explained.

The SLAAC process implies a methodical and orderly sequence in which all parcels within a selected area are brought onto the register for the first time.

Minister urges beneficiaries

Lands minister Judith Nabakooba has been handing over these freehold titles across the country saying the Government made this deliberate effort to roll out a national programme of systematic land titling with support from the World Bank, through the Competitiveness Enterprise Development Project.

She said one of the government’s commitments in the National Resistance Movement party 2021 election manifesto is to assist landowners in acquiring land titles to the land in order to curb land disputes and evictions and also to protect citizens from the consequences of lack of land registration.

“Utilise the land and use it safely. Use your titles to do productive activities and not to get bank loans, or use it in bars as security,” she told over 2,000 beneficiaries in Oyam district on December 17, 2022.

The minister asked the locals to keep their titles from all those who may want to dupe them into making transactions by using the titles as security. This, she said, will make them eventually lose the land to scammers and opportunists.

“To the new registered land owners, I urge you to use your titles to generate more wealth now that it is safe from disputes. Avoid fragmenting and subdividing your land because it may become less productive with time. Do not sell it but put the certificates to productive use through accessing credit in order to transform your families and the nation at large,” she said.

She also urged them to guard their titles jealously and ensure they are under lock and key. “This is the beginning of a new generation of landlords powered by the government of Uganda,” Nabakooba said.