President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni has called for massive land registration to ensure the security of tenure in order to realize economic transformation in Sub-Saharan Africa.
In his message delivered by Vice President Jessica Alupo at the Global Land Learning Week on Wednesday, June 12, 2024, at Speke Resort Munyonyo, President Museveni said land registration is key to safeguarding ownership and reducing overwhelming land cases.
The learning week is organized under the theme “Government and civil society partnerships in land governance and is running from June 9–15, 2024, with over 100 foreign delegates from over 35 countries.
Museveni called for land governance interventions to ensure security of tenure through building and maintaining an open, transparent identification and mediation process.
“The government should protect citizens from land evictions, which adversely affect the majority and most vulnerable owners and users. It is now important for land governance matters to guide all the stakeholders in ensuring certainty of land ownership,” said the President.
The president stressed that land eviction cause untold social-political instability, tenure insecurity, and landlessness. He says they should invest more in urbanization and industrialization.
Lands, Housing, and Urban Development Minister Judith Nabakooba said that through global partnerships, the discussions have the potential to shape land governance in Uganda.
The minister said there is an urgent need to increase the security of property rights through the registration and documentation of all land rights and ensuring integrated land-use planning at all levels.
Minister Nabakooba emphasized the government’s commitment to increasing the protection of land rights while ensuring optimal land use through various policies, institutional, and legal reforms.
Uganda has four land tenure systems including mailo, freehold, leasehold, and customary, which is predominantly covering over 60%–70% of the country and remains largely unregistered.
In Uganda, only 30% of land is estimated to be registered, while less than 10% of land in Sub-Saharan Africa is registered, an indicator that requires considerable attention, according to Nabakooba.
The Ambassador of the Netherlands to Uganda, H.E. Karin Boven, said that the Dutch government has partnered with different civil society organizations (CSOs) to ensure land rights in different communities.
Birungi Frances Odong, the Executive Director of Uganda Community-Based Associations for Women and Child Welfare, called for the strengthening and implementation of policies to protect vulnerable communities.
A total of 24 Ministry Zonal Offices have been established by the government to decentralize land governance and administration through the development of land information systems to improve process efficiency and the implementation of Systematic Land Adjudication and Certification (SLAC).
Through this initiative, over 80,000 customary certificates and about one million titles have been processed within five years to ensure land tenure security.
