Rwanda Land Management and Use Authority (RLMUA) has allayed fears that land transfer fees could increase and made assurances that the fee could be reduced soon instead. Following the decision to give powers to private notaries to oversee land transactions, the public has been wondering if they will be charged extra fees. “We have been paying Rwf30,000 per land transfer and while this is already too much, there are fears that private notaries could increase the fee,” said Someon Munyarukiko, a landowner in Kicukiro district. Munyarukiko who has a big plot of land said whenever he wants to sell part of it, he is required Rwf30,000 and the buyer is also required Rwf30,000 to get a land title. The resident said there is unfairness in land transfer fees as it is not based on the size and value of the land. “If someone has to transfer Rwf400,000 land in a rural area, they pay Rwf30,000 as the same person transferring a Rwf30 million in another area,” he said. The issue was also exposed by 2020-2021 activity report of the Ombudsman’s Office which says that a flat fee of Rwf30,000 that was imposed on the transfer of land regardless of size, location and value, which some residents decry as being high. The Ombudsman’s Office requested that concerned entities should consider a way to lower that cost based on the land size, location and its intended use (value). It is to note that, while appearing before the Chamber of Deputies on October 6, 2020, the Minister of Environment, Jeanne dArc Mujawamariya, pledged that the revised land transfer fees would be introduced in December 2020, something that did not happen. Speaking to The New Times, Espérance Mukamana, the Director-General of Rwanda Land Management and Use Authority (RLMUA) said the law is being revised with the ministry of Finance and Economic Planning to ensure the fee is lowered as soon as private notaries are also given power to oversee land transactions. “We are pushing the law to be issued and by this year the fee will have been reduced at an amount that will be agreed upon in the law. Meanwhile we assure the public that engaging private notaries in land transactions will not trigger any increase in land transfer fees” she said. She said that private notaries were needed to oversee land transactions considering that some sectors have no land notaries. “We have realized that one notary in the sector goes to support land services in three sectors because the position is vacant. This happens when the local government is seeking to recruit land notaries which takes time,” she said.
