‘DRAFT LAND POLICY READY’

…foreigners won’t have it easy, says minister

FOREIGN nationals will not have it easy to acquire land in Zambia in the new land policy, Lands and Natural Resources Minister Jean Kapata has said.

Ms Kapata said Government wanted the new land policy to benefit Zambians.

"We will only give land to foreign investors through the Zambia Development Agency (ZDA) of which the land will be taken back by the government after about 30 years when the investment period comes to an end," she said in an interview.

Ms Kapata said that the new policy would allow youths to acquire land at the age of 18 and not the 21 years that was in the current policy.

She also said the draft Land Policy was complete and stakeholders would soon be invited for validation. Ms Kapata said that the draft has been sent to all stakeholders to ensure that the issues that were raised during the drafting process were included.

According to the minister, the new Land Policy would empower citizens as many would start benefitting from the natural resource.

She said that the new policy would provide a favourable environment for the country to realise a diversified and resilient economy.

In its current form, the land administration system leaves little room for the empowerment of citizens especially the poor and vulnerable in rural areas.

Many stakeholders have been complaining about the weakness in the administration of land in the country.

"We are hoping to start the validation that was disturbed by the outbreak Covid-19 outbreak soon enough. We want to ensure that stakeholders see that what was discussed is what has been included in the document," she said.

Ms Kapata said that the document would after validation be submitted to Cabinet and presented before Parliament for approval.

She said that the adoption and validation of the policy would also pave way for citizen-centred amendments to land-related statutes.

The minister was confident that the revised policy would be comprehensive enough to address the difficulties women and the youth

have been facing when acquiring land in Zambia despite Government allotting a quota for them.