By BUUMBA CHIMBULU
THE rolling out of the National Land Titling programme and simplification of procedure will enhance access to credit needed to fund businesses.
Policy Monitoring and Research Centre (PMRC) Executive Director, Bernadette Deka Zulu, said this would ensure that more women obtain documentation for their land and use as collateral to access credit needed for their businesses.
“This consequently will result in further empowering women, the youth and persons with disabilities to access credit and capital to finance their business ideas through formal institutions such as banks and other credit facilities,” Ms Deka-Zulu said in a statement.
Government last year launched the National Land Titling programme, which will see the issuance of four million land titles across the country, as compared to the three hundred thousand as of 2020.
Ms Deka-Zulu said the Land Titling programme would ensure that private individuals were given formal property rights for land which they had previously occupied informally or used on the basis of customary land tenure.
“The launch of the program will increase the issuance of land titles which will protect property rights, facilitate land and will enable land to be used as loan collateral which will facilitate equity and development,” she said.
Furthermore, Ms Deka-Zulu said, the policy seeks to secure land for citizens by limiting the land tenure for foreign investors.
She said this was is a commendable effort by the Government, as land was not only a critical resource of production but was also a geopolitical space that equally speaks to our heritage as Zambians.
Ms Deka-Zulu said the policy had been long overdue as the land management and administration in the country had faced challenges due to the lack of a comprehensive legal framework to govern its management holistically.
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