MONROVIA, Jan. 16 (LINA) – Finance Minister Samuel D. Tweah has urged planners of the Systematic Land Titling project to work closely with community dwellers in order to achieve the overall objectives of the project across the country.
The Systematic Land Titling Project is intended to address controversies surrounding land ownership in the country by providing protection and legal ownership of land to people who have been considered squatters in the past.
The pilot project, which is being implemented by the Liberian Government through the Liberia Land Authority (LLA) in collaboration with MEDICI LAND GOVERNANCE (MLG) is expected to be adopted on a full scale around the country.
Speaking as Chief Launcher during the official launch of the project at the Clara Town sports pitch in the suburbs of Monrovia, Minister Tweah called on the planners of the program to do more in explaining to the community dwellers the intention of the project which, according to him, is centered around protecting citizens.
“The key message is that people who own land here are going to be protected by this project,” the Ministry of Finance and Development Planning boss told residents of Clara Town and Doe communities.
Tweah stressed that the issue of land challenges in Liberia is critical, citing that it is glaring that lots of issues Liberians have evolve around land ownership.
He highlighted that as such, the Government of Liberia deliberately setup the Liberia Land Authority as a means of addressing the challenges associated with land ownership.
However, the MFDP boss lamented that the planners of the program at the Clara Town sports pitch did not execute their mandate well by sitting with community dwellers and explaining to them what the project hopes to achieve.
« The planner of the program did not proceed well in their inability to work with the community and explain to them what the project is all about, » Minister Tweah emphasized.
He assured residents of both Clara Town and Doe communities that the project is about protecting inhabitants of slump communities who have accumulated land over the years but do not have legal ownership to those lands.
« So you first needed to have had several meetings with the community people before holding the program. You working with a community, you need to make them understand that the government wants to give them official recognition to their land. That’s what the whole program is about. It is not about revenue generation as others may think. » Tweah narrated.
The Finance Minister noted that the government of Liberia is solving national problems, stating that the Systematic Land Titling Project is being piloted with the aim of rolling it out across the country.
Tweah encouraged residents of the communities involved to cooperate with the Liberia Land Authority and the Medici Land Governance in order to achieve the goal of the project which evolve around giving legal ownership for the land citizens occupy.
« When people get title for the land they occupy, it increases their opportunity to get loan from banks. Without title, you cannot get loan from the bank, » Tweah asserted.
He frowned on the idea of referring to people who occupy government land as “squatters,” citing that the government has abundant land to host all of its agriculture activities.
« We should stop calling people squatters. Let this project confer title on squatters and let’s move on. There are too many lands in this country that the government can do agriculture on, » he said.
Medici Land Governance (MLG) provides user friendly, low-cost land titling and administration systems through building quality technology products to help individuals secure prosperity rights.
The MLG team is comprised of leaders with deep experience in building and delivering quality, resilient technology products and services.
As a public benefit corporation, MLG promotes economic development and full financial inclusion by helping individuals establish formal ownership of their homes and land.
MGL uses block-chain and other technologies (such as cryptography, Artificial intelligence and other) to support land governance, titling, and administration with a secure public record of land ownership.
Land records stored on the block-chain make land ownership transparent, secure, verifiable, and recognizable by local and global economies.
