A discussion with the lands expert Mr Russell Nari at the VFIPA office saw the presentation of key land reforms that may be made to the current Customary Land Management Act and the tedious process that currently exists to acquire new land leases.

Mr Nari’s presentation is the product of continuous consultations that have taken place by his team to ensure that the process to acquiring new land leases is actually made possible providing further development opportunities for both the land owner and the developer.
As it stands, the current Land Management Act has only brought to effect 5 new land leases out of over 1000 applications that have been submitted to the Customary Land Management Office (CLMO).
These 5 leases mainly were for the development and or establishment of clinics, health centers or schools.

Any application for a new land lease has not come into effect yet being stuck in the current process of acquiring.

The active process involved in the acquiring of a new lease takes approximately 632 days however current records show that it takes far more time to acquire than what is already in place.

“The current and biggest challenge that this process hosts is the fact that it is three separate processes that have been amalgamated into one process,” said Mr Nari.

The new proposal cuts down processing time from 632 to 445 days however more importantly enables each process to be transparent and less costly.

The proposals will be part of the bill that will most likely repeal the current Land Management Act should it be passed by Parliament later on this year.

The VFIPA CEO and Management were very happy with the discussions and are eager to be part of the wider consultations that Mr Nari and his team will be carrying out in the next months as their awareness to the key stakeholders of the new proposals and the new proposed bill.