in LTR. Finally, LAIS is being integrated with data on land use and agro-ecological suitability maintained by the Ministry of Agriculture and Animal Resources to monitor land use and its changes and in doing so facilitate siting of investments higher up in the value chain, e.g., in agro-processing.

# **3.2 Measures undertaken to improve sustainability**

Registering a transfer of property in Rwanda requires submission of documentation to the district land office (DLO). Once authenticity and completeness of documents is verified, the responsible officer enters data and scanned documents into the computerized system, triggering notification of affected parties by SMS at this and subsequent steps in the process.<sup>8</sup> The registration request is then electronically forwarded to one of the five regional offices where, if satisfied, the Deputy Registrar approves the transaction. This will lead to titles being printed with one copy sealed and signed to be stored in the regional office and one transferred to the DLO for issuance to the applicant who can sign it in the presence of a notary. While the process is clear in principle, unaffordable fees, lack of awareness, and difficult access may create obstacles.

First, registering a transfer incurs a flat fee of RwF 27,000 or about USD 40.<sup>9</sup> As flat fees are regressive and may be unaffordable or difficult to justify for rural people with small plots, a review was conducted in 2015. It recommended to waive stamp duty and possibly reduce registration fees, for rural parcels below 5 ha and to set urban fees at levels that would allow the registration system to sustain itself. This is in line with evidence that, even in developed countries, transfer taxes raise little revenue compared to land taxes but encourage informality and threaten sustainability of land registries (Dachis _et al._ 2012). A revised fee structure is yet to be finalized and to be approved formally by the government.

Second, lack of awareness by concerned parties may be a key reason for high variability in the extent to which subsequent transactions are registered. Indeed, many buyers thought taking possession of the seller’s title without name change would establish ownership or, unaware of the documents needed and process to be followed, had transfers authenticated by village officials.<sup>10</sup> To address this, the government conducted two national campaigns, referred to as ‘land weeks’, in May/June 2014 and February/April 2015.<sup>11</sup> These involved extensive coverage on television and radio, and face-to face events in some 150 sectors each.

Third, DLOs may be too distant from average citizens to act as the first point of contact for delivery of land services. To address this, sector land managers (SLMs) were recruited to provide information and be in

> 8 Until 2016 these documents, to be submitted by buyer(s) and seller(s) in person and witnessed included proof of identity and land ownership, marriage certificate and the transaction agreement with supporting documents (extract from the cadastral plan for sub-division, tax clearance, stamp duty and registration fee). Since 2016 witnesses and marriage certificate are no longer required.

> 9 The stamp duty was reduced from 6% of property value in 2006. Partly to improve the country’s ranking in the World Bank’s ‘Doing Business’, a flat fee of RwF 20,000 plus a RwF 7,000 registration fee, was adopted. 10 The fact that subdivision of land below a level of 1 hectare is formally prohibited may add another legislative aspect.

> 11 The slogan for the first land week was ‘ _any unregistered land you claim is not legally yours’_ , whereas the second was under the motto ‘ _register any land transaction and respect the land use plan’_ .

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