Safer land records database planned

THE Minister for Lands, Housing and Human Settlement Development, Mr William Lukuvi, has called upon the Integrated Land Management Information System (ILMIS) to speed up digitisation work that shall allow electronic updating, processing, storage and retrieval of land records and information in Tanzania.

Speaking after touring the ILMIS offices in Dar es Salaam yesterday, Mr Lukuvi said the new process shall automatically stop double allocation of land titles, and allow the 99-year land title that cannot be tampered with, as it was the case in some areas currently, where some people use fake names to own land.

“When this new system becomes operational, corruption in land occupancy shall automatically come to an end because land records shall be preserved in a special system that neither land officials nor other authorities may tamper with that electronic system. We thank the World Bank for supporting the establishment of this facility” he said.

Mr Lukuvi has directed ILMIS officials to make sure that the system becomes operational by June 2018, to enable land occupants especially in Kinondoni and Ubungo districts in Dar es Salaam region to get their electronic titles. ILMIS is carrying out the implementation in the two districts as a pilot project.

According to Mr Lukuvi, the public shall from now on have an easier access to loans through the issuant the digital model of title deeds, insisting that previously issuance of title deeds used to take a month to 10 years, but under the new electronic system, the process shall only take the maximum of seven days.

“All data registration-evaluation will be collected through the ILMIS and installed in a digital way thereby all Tanzanians either in Dar es Salaam or other regions will not need to come for verification on title deeds in Dar Es Salaam as it will be accessed in their regions respectively,” said Mr Lukuvi.

Ms Irene Sarwar, the town planner at Ministry of Lands outlined positive impacts of the digital record system, saying there would be no land disputes that currently exist through analogue system, as data shall be accessed easily.

On March 16, 2015 tenders were floated for the construction on a electronic Integrated Land Management Information System (ILMS) to allow electronic updating, processing, storage and retrieval of land records and information, avoid double registration of land and ensure payment of all related taxes.

Funded by the World Bank, the project is aimed at easing the management of Tanzanian land while facilitating access to information for population and this has been a major concern for the country.

The initial phase of the project includes the design, development, customisation, build, installation of ILMIS, support efficient administration of cadastre and real property registration at central, zonal and district level, conversion and indexing of data and migration into the ILMIS database.


The project is also designing an installation of a web application, to provide controlled access to stakeholders, purchase, deployment and installation of hardware and equipment.