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The feature is part of the country’s online Land Information Inquiry Portal (LIIP), known as Amakuru.lands.rw, operated by the National Land Authority (NLA) to enable users to access land-related information.
The data portal was developed with support from GanzAfrica, a human capital social enterprise committed to building the capacity of talented African youth while tackling challenges in the land, agriculture and environment sectors.
Grace Nishimwe, Director General of the NLA, said the new feature would enable land offices and district authorities to monitor and track land transactions across the country.
"The system will show land files that have been delayed for more than 30 days across the country and how staff are handling the applications. It will track staff who are not processing the files and hold them accountable to avoid backlog. This will help us deploy immediate measures in response,” she explained.
She said district leaders and managers of land one-stop centres at district level would use the portal to monitor land files daily.
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"The data portal showed us which districts had the largest backlogs. These include Bugesera, Rwamagana, Musanze, Kamonyi and Gasabo. This helped us support the districts in addressing the backlog by deploying more personnel and volunteers. Data is helping us make decisions,” she said.
Tracking approved settlement sites
Nishimwe said the land system would also include a feature enabling people to check whether the land they intend to buy is located in an area covered by an approved physical plan.
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"With this, you can know whether the land you want to buy is in an area covered by a physical plan, which shows where infrastructure has to be established to enable you to obtain a construction permit. We are integrating approved physical plans into the Land Administration Information System to enable these checks,” she noted.
Rulindo District Mayor Judith Mukanyirigira said delays in land transactions meant that citizens sometimes had to wait three to four months to complete the process. She said the new land data portal would help ease the burden.
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Jacques Niyongabo, Director General in charge of Corporate Services at Bugesera District, said the district was experiencing rapid population growth driven by migration, increasing demand for land and contributing to a backlog in processing land-related applications.
The number of land transfers in Bugesera District rose from 5,000 in 2018 to 30,000 in 2025, according to the NLA.
The number could reach 35,000 in 2026.
Bugesera’s population is projected to increase from 550,000 to 1.2 million by 2050.
Jeanine Uwase, an analyst at GanzAfrica, said the land data portal would also facilitate access to land information for various purposes.
"In addition to addressing backlogs in land transactions, the data can help other institutions with planning and decision-making,” she said.
"Institutions, researchers and private sector players can request the data they need from the portal and obtain it upon approval from the land office,” said Athanase Akumuntu, Acting Digital Officer at the Ministry of Environment.
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The new feature follows the development of a land dashboard displaying information on the number of transactions, land prices and ownership, among other indicators.
The data shows that agriculture accounts for the largest number of land parcels, at about 8.3 million, exceeding the combined total of all other categories. Residential land ranks second, with approximately 1.7 million parcels, followed by forestry, with about 1.1 million.
Other land-use categories account for roughly 200,000 to 300,000 parcels, while commercial, livestock, industrial, public administration and public facility land account for relatively small numbers.