THE Director General of the National Land Centre, Emmanuel Nkurunziza has called upon Landowners in Kigali to prioritize timely registration of their land by respecting deadlines set in different areas.

He said that unless the Land Tenure Regularization process is respected, landowners risk incurring costs for the service when the time limit for specific areas has passed.

The official noted that landlords in the city have been reluctant and not as accessible as those in other areas across the country.

"We have started registration within the city, but most people are tenants and owners are never available to give the necessary information for us to carry out demarcation,” Nkurunziza said in an exclusive interview.

He added; "We have only managed to cover 192,527 plots yet only 141,209 have been cleared for land titles out of the expected estimated 329,020 plots in Kigali City.”

Some of the major setbacks to the process, according to Nkurunziza, include pending land disputes.

He said that in Kigali City, Nyarugenge District has the highest number of unresolved land disputes with 133 cases registered.

Meanwhile, the exercise that started in July last year has so far covered 2,184,149 plots which amounts to 30 percent of the 8 million plots estimated countrywide, official records say.

Among the commended districts for the cooperation to speed up the exercise are Kirehe, Rubavu, Bugesera and Nyamagabe where at least 50 percent of the area has been covered.

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