Processing a land title to take minutes

By John Masaba

Chasing a land title will now take minutes instead of weeks when the digitalization of the lands office is completed next month, officials in the lands ministry have said.

The project is part of government’s plan to implement an e-government structure designed to improve efficiency in delivery of public services.

The large stacks of dusty files that bear records of all land titles since 1962 when Uganda became independent will be burnt after IGN, a French company, completes capturing all the information and storing them online next month.

Christopher Burke, an official at IGN, said the new service will, however, be available to the public in February next year when the current staff at the ministry are expected to have received requisite training on handling working with the new system.

When completed, the system will cut the processing time for a land title from 14 days to ten minutes, according to the official.

The new land registry system which started two years ago at the ministry of lands and urban development is a World Bank-funded which will cost the Government $23.8m (about sh69b).

Burke said the new electronic system comes with a variety of advantages. “Instead of 14 days processing time, it will now take a matter of minutes,” he said.  “The new system minimises fraud because it will make land transactions more transparent.”

He also said land owners who wish to get loans and mortgages will find it easy to convince banks because all information will available on the ministry of lands website, which will be accessed by everybody.

Dennis Obbo, the land ministry spokesperson, said the ministry has set up six pilot zonal offices in Kampala, Wakiso, Masaka, Mukono, Jinja and Mbarara to serve the public to reduce on the long queues at the ministry.

Stories of land fraud in the country have been rampant in past few years as the value of land goes up, especially in urban areas.

Police say the manual system encourages land fraud as it is easier to forge and alter land documents, allocate a single plot to many different people while some people have lost millions after buying land plots in land reserves like roads.

According to Ibn Senkumbi, the Kampala Extra Police spokesperson, they receive about 30 fraud land related cases in Kampala alone every monthly because many people find process of doing paperwork in land registry a mystery.

 The development comes barely a month after Uganda revenue Authority announced it was moving its vehicle registration process online.