Ubutaka

Muraho mwese! Another month has passed, and it's time for another installment in this long series of posts on Rwanda. This month's post, once again courtesy of Nannie, is about land ownership in Rwanda.

As I learned in my semester of ECON 101 in college, clearly defined land ownership is a very important thing for an economy, lending it stability and encouraging investment. Clear ownership laws lead, not surprisingly, to a sense of ownership, which in turn encourages those owners to care for their land and add value to it because they may one day want to sell it and would probably appreciate getting more money for it than they originally paid. Clear regulation of land ownership eliminates the effect known as “tragedy of the commons,” which happens when everyone is responsible for something yet no one takes responsibility for it, as can sometimes be seen with public parks, for example. But, enough about basic Economics; this is about Rwanda, and Rwanda is taking action to more clearly define land ownership. The government aims to make clear land boundaries, map out all land, and issue land titles to all landowners by 2013. In this post, I'll explore who owns the land in Rwanda and what options there are for gaining access to land.

In 2005, the Organic Land Law was enacted in Rwanda. This law outlines Rwanda's policies concerning land ownership, and it has been widely heralded as a great example to other African countries in the way it establishes clear guidelines for land ownership and encourages investment. According to the law, all land in Rwanda officially belongs to the government. The government then leases land to individuals or businesses for a period of 50 to 99 years. I found this interesting, but it appears not to be uncommon, at least in Africa, and if you click here post you'll find an article comparing land ownership in Rwanda and Kenya, which has a similar situation. When I asked my roommates about land ownership, the thing that they mentioned about government ownership of land is that the government has the right to, say, build a road through someone's land without compensating him/her for it. The only thing the government has to compensate someone for is his/her house or other personal property that may be demolished to make way for the new road. I did not find how that is dealt with in the lease with the government, and I have a feeling there's some part of that story missing.

One of the reasons this law is viewed so positively, especially concerning the encouragement of investment, is that there is no difference between Rwandan nationals and foreigners. So, if I want a piece of land in Rwanda, it's just as easy for me as for my Rwandan neighbor, and I don't have to worry about him getting preferential treatment at the land registrar's office. Since my small piggy bank doesn't really interest the government, its true importance is that foreign investors can easily obtain land and (hopefully) boost the economy with their businesses.

To obtain land, first a person must get documents related to the land such as the previous title deed and the sale/purchase agreement, for which there are land registration offices in each of the four provinces in Rwanda. Then, with those documents, an ID, and the receipt from paying the land lease and transfer fees, he/she goes to the district office (there are 30 districts in Rwanda) to complete the lease. The figure I saw for the fees was around 100,000 RWF (about $160), but I imagine it must vary according to the size and value of the land.

Once land is obtained for this long-term lease, it may be passed down as an inheritance, with equal rights given to both men and women in the law. Again, this stipulation of equal rights to land for wwwmen and women is trumpeted by many, but the realities on the ground do not always reflect the law, as this article suggests. Besides inheritance, I'm unsure about the renewal of a lease, but it must be possible, and I suspect that it would be easier than first obtaining the land.

Rwanda's economy still relies heavily on agriculture, but not all Rwandans have enough land to cultivate all that they want: one statistic I found said that 24% of the population controls 70% of the arable land. So the question becomes how is access granted to those who need land to work but don't actually hold a lease themselves. There are several possibilities from what I have seen. First of all, there are numerous cooperatives around Rwanda where farmers can pay dues to have access to a small plot. In the valley below my house there is a small cooperative, and people plant various vegetables on their plots of land.

The other option is to work on land owned by a large company who then compensates the farmers for their harvest. For example, in my area much of the land in the valleys is owned by Gikonko Rice, a large rice factory nearby. The farmers don't own what they grow, but they have work and make money on what they sell to the factory. I found this out when one of my students came to me once to ask about getting money. The solution I proposed was that I could buy whatever it was that his mother grew, since I knew she was a farmer. He told me she farms the rice fields and can't sell her rice to me. So much for that idea.

To make a long story short, no Rwandans technically own land, but they can effectively do so through long-term leases from the government. Those who can't afford the leases or can't find land, can join a cooperative or work land owned by a large company. As with many things, the Rwandan government is working to improve land ownership regulation with increased focus on land registration. In fact, there are many billboards around urging people to register their land.

Hopefully you've learned something in this post. Until next month, murabeho!

Happy birthday this month: Nannie, Derek, Seth, Aunt Beth, Abby, John

Next month's post: Guest writer?