GOVERNMENT HANDS OVER CERTIFICATES OF OCCUPANCY TO 86737 BIBANJA HOLDERS

The Ministry of lands has today handed over land certificates of occupancy to thousands of milo Land tenants in five districts as a mitigation measure to solve land disputes.

This was done during the closing ceremony for phase one of the GIZ and European Union project dubbed ''Improvement of Land Governance in Uganda to increase productivity of small scale farmers on private Mailo land'' which commenced in 2017 in four districts of Gomba, Mubende, Kasanda and Mityana

While officiating at the closing ceremony of the project at the mayor’s garden in Mubende municipality, Naome Kabanda, commissioner lands administration at the ministry of lands stressed that the government is giving tenants certificates of occupancy to tenants as one of the major solutions to resolving the increasing land conflicts between tenants and their landlords.

“This project has helped government create the missing data base of land lords and tenants which is going to ease the work of finding out who owns Kibanja and land at a specific area thus enabling the buyers and sellers carry out transparent and genuine transactions therefore reducing the land wrangles.” Kabanda added

Mrs Adrieansen Caroline Head of European Union cooperation explained that this project has finished the mapping of 86737 Bibanja holders of which 28159 Bibanja are for women, 1531 for persons with disability and 9233 are for old people. She noted that a total amount of USD 4.3m more funds for the second phase of the project have been earmarked awaiting the signing of European Union, Germany government and the Ministry of finance to kick off

Resident District Commissioner Mubende district Mrs. Rose Mary Byabaisaija the RDC noted that the lack of legal occupation certificates has been a great hinderance to the residents in Mubende district from engaging in commercial and perennial groups due to fear of being harassed and evicted from their bibanja