28
or so leases issued annually by the government, the MOL estimates that it has a current backlog of
30,000 applications in various stages. Based on the number of lease applications brought forward to
the councils (table 1.10), applications are currently coming in at a rate of 6,000 per annum. In
addition, the MOL foresees a large increase in the demand for title: 17,658 new registrations of
small-scale and medium-scale farms on planned farmlands (on an area of roughly 730,350 hectares)
mainly along the Tazara corridor; 6,210 cases of pending titles in settlement schemes on 338,700
hectares; and 1,020 titles on an area of 59,390 hectares associated with land demarcation surveys done
in 1992 (internal MOL data). Another 18,000 titles are envisioned associated with the survey and
settlement of smallholders on parastatal farms currently being considered for privatization in Lusaka,
Central, and Northern provinces.
Table 1.10: Lease applications brought forward to district councils,
1 January to 31 May 1993
|
Residential |
Commercial |
Industrial |
Agricultural |
Others | |
|
Northern |
63 |
7 |
- |
25 |
1 |
|
Luapula |
19 |
7 |
25 |
1 | |
|
Central |
218 |
13 |
1 |
85 | |
|
Southern |
144 |
37 |
1 |
58 |
2 |
|
Lusaka |
- |
477 |
- | ||
|
Eastern |
70 |
10 |
2 |
30 |
2 |
|
North-Westem |
30 |
5 |
9 | ||
|
Western |
120 |
8 |
1 |
8 | |
|
Copperbelt |
190 |
33 |
12 |
122 |
3 |
|
Lusaka |
600 |
30 |
15 |
- |
2 |
|
Total |
1,454 |
150 |
32 |
839 |
11 |
Source: MOL.
As with the administration of the Land Acquisitions Act, there are widespread rumors of graft
and corruption in the leasehold process extending from the chiefs up to the MOL. Regardless of
whether these claims are true, the situation where demand for title is greatly outpacing the system's
capacity to process leaseholds creates a fertile environment for those with influence or wealth to abuse
the system, as has been the case under the sporadic registrations systems in southern Uganda before
1975 and in Somalia throughout the 1980s. While the average time to process an application according
to the MOL is 2-3 years at present, these estimates are biased in that they count only those leases that
ultimately get issued and not the ones that have remained in the system for much longer without being
processed. Under current conditions, many applications may never result in title.
C. Factors influencing demand for title
Why such a large demand for title? Two reasons, sometimes inseparable, are repeatedly
mentioned by official sources: the demand of the leaseholder for enhanced tenure security for
investment; and the greater security afforded to lenders of capital from title as collateral.