{UAH} Uganda urged to register 82pc of land - Business - www.theeastafrican.co.ke
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Uganda urged to register 82pc of land - Business
Most of the land in Uganda is unregistered especially in the rural areas. Photo/Morgan Mbabazi
By MARTIN LUTHER OKETCH Special correspondent
Posted Saturday, February 8 2014 at 16:01
The World Bank wants Uganda to implement land reforms to boost investments, with data showing only 18 per cent of land in the country is registered.
The World Bank argues that land administration reform has the potential to transform Uganda's economy by easing presently cumbersome land policies and weak land tenure security, which is putting off investors. In rural areas, only five per cent of land is registered.
World Bank country director for Uganda Ahadou Moustapha Ndiaye said the reforms in the land sector will also reduce inefficiencies in land registration and licensing, hence facilitating the flow of investments to high growth sectors, including commercial agriculture.
"Uganda has considerable potential to achieve higher growth and create new jobs, but faces serious constraints in access to land, licensing procedures and construction permits, which significantly increase the cost of doing business," said Mr Ndiaye.
Uganda has just signed a line credit agreement of $100 million with the World Bank to reduce the burden on businesses when dealing with registration and licensing procedures by streamlining the issuance process through the creation of a one-stop-shop for registration and business licences. The one-stop-shop should go online once the project is implemented.
The country continues to rank poorly in ease of doing business reviews largely because of poor scores in the legal and regulatory environment.
"Improving the legal, regulatory and supervisory environment will help to enhance the long term stability and growth of Uganda's economy and ultimately make the country more attractive to potential investors," said Moses Kibirige, the project's task team leader at the World Bank in Uganda.
The World Bank said the new initiative will scale up the gains realised under the Second Private Sector Competitiveness Project, which enabled the authorities to digitise about 500,000 land titles and reduce the time taken to register transactions from 3-5 years to the current 3-21 days.
Uganda has been undertaking business reforms since 2010 with the help of the International Finance Corporation (IFC) under the Uganda Investment Climate Project.
It is anticipated by both the IFC and the Uganda government that savings of up to Ush75 billion will be made from implementing these reforms.
Speaking at the signing ceremony for the credit agreement, Finance Minister Maria Kiwanuka said, "By the end of the project, the public should have access to a total of 21 zonal land offices across the country, leading to a reduction in the cost of and time taken in registering land; greater use of the land resources as collateral in the banking sector, and reduction in land disputes."
In the World Bank 2012 Doing Business Report, Uganda was ranked 123 out 182 economies surveyed. It improved three places in the 2013 edition, moving to rank 120 out of 182.
There was, however, a dramatic 12 place drop in the 2014 report, with Uganda ranked 132 out of 189 economies surveyed by the World Bank. The report shows that this was a result of the country's failure to implement the required business reforms.
Peter Ngategize the national co-ordinator of the Competitiveness and Investment Climate Strategy (CICS) Secretariat in the Ministry of Finance, Planning and Economic Development, told The EastAfrican that in the latest report starting a business and registering a property were cited as big constraints by investors.
Dr Ngategize said the reform process will bring down the cost of getting certified copies and also reduce on corruption.
Although Uganda has been leading in East Africa in attracting foreign direct investment, the reforms in the investment climate have been relatively slow.
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