Parley approves Lands Ministry funding
By ANNIE ZULU PARLIAMENT yesterday approved a K266,971,620.00 budget for the Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources for 2018.
And Lands Minister Jean Kapata told the House in a policy statement in support of the 2018 budget estimates for the Ministry that K37, 595,800.00 had been allocated for the implementation of the National Land Titling Programme.
Ms Kapata noted that the allocation had increased as compared to K11, 665,814.00 allocated in 2017.
She also disclosed that the Ministry had targeted to produce 300,000 certificates of title in 2018 under the programme with a potential of contributing an additional K1 billion to the treasury.
“My Ministry shall scale up activities under the programme by rolling out the programme from the two pilot sites covered in 2017, to the Copperbelt, Central and Southern provinces.
“The implementation of the programme shall contribute to domestic revenue generation in the form of consideration and other processing fees paid by clients to obtain title.
“Resources to the treasury shall also accrue in the form of annual ground rents on the registered and titled properties. Property owners shall enjoy the benefits of security of tenure and empowerment to enter into productive engagement using their properties,” Ms Kapata said
The Minister further observed that the pace at which the national titling programme moved in 2017 was in part affected by the requirements of the existing legislation which was more aligned to sporadic title registration.
She has since assured that her Ministry was working in collaboration with the Ministry of Justice and other stakeholders to put in place legislation that was responsive to mass titling to address the challenge.