Rwandans will soon begin accessing electronic land titles without queuing for long hours at the land registries, an initiative expected to improve service delivery and address title loss and damage according to the Ministry of Environment.
The new electronic certificate system for land registration, e-Titles, will realize the goal of the “zero trips, zero paper” for land transactions.
The Ministry said “the new e-Tittle system, land titles will be provided immediately following the Registrar’s approval.” The landowner will receive a notification with a link to download and save a digital copy of their land title.”
With issuance of e-titles, a person who registered land will get a notification message of service delivery via telephone and computer without the landowner printing titles on paper.
Speaking at the official launch of issuing electronic land titles, the Director General of Lands, Esperance Mukamana, allayed fears saying that the new electronic land titles will have all the information like previous physical titles.
“The e-tittle will have all the necessary information like those possessed by the previous physical title,” she said, adding that the information will have to be delivered only by the land registry as done before.
The move is part of the government’s initiative of digitizing public services to the citizens as well as making easier access of services for them.
Normally, land titles cost Rwf30, 000 for land transfer fee despite the value of the land but with waiver of printing cost and transfers of ownership, land transfer cost is set to reduce to Rwf25, 000.
The Land law reforms of 2004 conducted countrywide and introduced land registration systems paved the road to the current developments according to officials.
