NORTHERN PROVINCE MUSANZE — At least 53 land owners in Musanze district received land titles during the launch of the long awaited land registration exercise yesterday. The move, which is part of the National Land Tenure Reform Programme, was launched in Rwaza Sector, by the state minister in charge of Natural Resources, Vincent Karega. Karega described the launch as a ‘critical and historical’ exercise, which will boost the value of land. He pointed out that the move will empower land owners economically by enabling them to get loans from banks using land as collateral. Calling on the people to focus on improving the quality of their produce, Karega appealed to residents to develop their land. “We are witnessing another milestone towards Vision 2020 geared towards economic transformation,’’ Karega said. Earlier on, the government undertook several projects that led to yesterday’s launch. These include aerial picturing of plots of land, producing of cadastral maps and compiling of land owners’ identities into a data base for easy identification. According to the Director General of National Land centre, Eugene Rulangwa, they involved communities during the land demarcations to determine the land sizes. And these were allocated numbers for easy access. At the launch, the area Governor, Boniface Rucagu, said the exercise would address conflicts emanating from land ownership- which had been a source of divisionism and family wrangles. The Northern Province, which is one of the most highly populated areas in the country, registers a big number of land disputes, that result at times in divorce cases, and murders. Ends
