Sierra Leone government is planning to introduce free nationwide land registration and title certification, Lands Minister Dr. Turad Senesie has said.
In a recent Facebook post, Dr. Senesie said the government would carry out a systematic registration of land parcels across the country, with the process provided at no cost.
He said the exercise would be supported by the Land Management Information System (LMIS), which he said would help prevent duplicate land records and multiple claims over the same property.
The minister said people who successfully register their interests in land would receive title certificates, which he said would provide greater security and could allow landholders to use their property as collateral to obtain loans.
The announcement comes after Dr. Senesie recently said at a press conference in Freetown that there were no landowners in Sierra Leone in the formal legal sense.
He argued that people currently holding land were users until their interests had been formally registered and a title certificate issued.
“Each and every Sierra Leonean is a Land User and not a Land Owner including myself,” he said in the Facebook post.
His position has been challenged by the Lawyers’ Society, which says existing Sierra Leonean law recognises legal interests and ownership rights in land.
The Society has cited the Conveyancing Act 1881, which provides for the transfer of estates and interests in land through legal instruments known as conveyances.
A conveyance is distinct from a title certificate. It is an instrument used to transfer an interest in land, while registration records the relevant transaction. A title certificate would provide formal evidence of ownership under a title-registration system.
The debate therefore centres not only on the proposed registration system, but also on the legal status of people who already hold conveyances and other land documents.
The proposed framework has received Cabinet approval but still requires parliamentary approval. Dr. Senesie did not say in his Facebook post that the new system was already in force.
He said the reforms would help tackle problems including disputed boundaries, multiple claims and land grabbing.
The minister did not give a date for when the free registration exercise would begin.
