Payment to absentee landlords made easy

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OPINION

By Ahmed Kateregga Musaazi

Land tenure in Uganda is guaranteed under customary, freehold, Mailo and leasehold in accordance with the Constitution of the Republic of Uganda. This is operationalised by the 1998 Land Act as amended.

Under the Constitution and the Land Act, there is a provision for a land fund, by which the government, among others, pays off landowners. Where land is occupied customarily tenants and bonafide occupants, and they automatically get freehold titles.

This was successfully experimented in Kibaale, Kagadi and Kakumiro districts, and success stories have also been registered in Nakaseke, Kayunga, Mubende and Gomba districts. However, it is yet to make an impact due to the limitations of the national resource envelope.

In Jinja district alone, there are 500 fresh freehold titles that are going to be given to customary tenants after freehold land owners were paid off by the government. This is scheduled to be done before the end of 2025.

Another programme has been with the German Society for International Cooperation (GIZ) that has worked for 10 years in different parts of Uganda, especially in Mityana, Kassanda, Kiboga, Kyankwanzi, Mubende, Gomba and Butambala districts, where bibanja are surveyed, and bibanja holders are given certificates, with the consent of the land owner.

Over 400 people have so far received their certificates, which they can even use as a mortgage in order to access bank loans.

Unfortunately, the donors have stopped funding the programme, but if President Yoweri Museveni and NRM are re-elected again, with the will of God, the programme will be rekindled and refunded.

The other problem has been absentee landlords and those that decline to receive busuulu (ground rent) from bibanja holders as a plot to evict them as squatters.

Some time back, the Cabinet presided over by President Yoweri Museveni passed an alternative system which will be used by the tenants to pay busuulu to such invisible landlords. This was announced by the Minister for Lands, Housing and Urban Development, Judith Nalule Nabakooba.

Under the arrangement, one goes to the Uganda Revenue Authority (URA) portal on the internet and fills in details of landlords, if known, and your district and location of kibanja, whether it is in a city, municipality, town council, town board, or rural area.

The system will calculate the assessment and generate a payment registration number (PRN) for the application on a payment invoice.

Copy the  PRN logout. Upload the amount generated on the PRN onto your mobile money phone. If it is an MTN number, type in *165*4*5# and call, select option 1 and enter the PRN, confirm details and put in your password for the busuulu to be transferred to URA. A receipt will be sent to you showing that the government has received the busuulu. If it is an Airtel number, use *185*4*7#.

In other words, this is a step-by-step procedure for the Payment of Busuulu to Absentee Landlords

1. Have a Smartphone with data or wifi access:
2. Open the Uganda Revenue Authority website (ura.go.ug);
3. Clock or make payment;
4. Tap on “Click here to register a payment.”
5. Select under Tax Head: ”Other NTR.”
6. Under Tax Payer Details, input your TIN.
7. Under “Details of Other NTR Payments”, select Ministry of Lands-Busuulu (Ground Rent).
8. Under Category-Select: “Absentee/Rejected landlord.”
9. Under Tax Head, select the District Local Government where the kibanja is located, whether in a city, municipality, town council, town board or rural area;
10. Insert Landlord name and contact;
11. Insert the number of years the tenant has not remitted busuulu.
12. Fill in the identification details and select the national ID.
13. Under payment method, select a suitable option. Enter the tax from the given image and accept, and register.

Once successful, you will receive an assessment form with a Payment Registration Number (PRN). Use that PRN and make a payment with either Mtn Mobile Money or Airtel Money.

Dial: Mtn*165*4*5# / Airtel *185*4*7#

All this is intended to protect customary tenants whose ancestors were occupying such land prior to the proclamation of the 1900 Agreement, which allocated land to private owners and those who settled on the land after 1900 with the consent of the land owners. It also protects bonafide occupants, especially those who settled on the land after Idi Amin’s 1975 Land Reform Decree had abolished Busuulu and Envujjo under the 19927 Busuulu and Envujjo Act.

It also protects both landlords and bonafide occupants who run from their land due to past civil war and civil strife and settled elsewhere without the consent of the owners. It deals with bibanja holders who are reluctant to pay the nominal fee to the landowner.  It is a win-win arrangement.

It is, however, complicated and detailed, and mass sensitisation is required for the people to grasp it.

Haji Ahmed Kateregga Musaazi is a journalist and Resident District Commissioner Jinja District