A total of 250 Certificates of Title for plots of land in Cotton Tree, West Coast Berbice, Region Five (Mahaica-Berbice) were distributed to residents on Monday.
The community, which was undocumented for decades is now regularised, as a result, of government’s commitment to empowering Guyanese through land ownership.
During his feature address at the distribution exercise, President Dr. Irfaan Ali revealed that over $100 million was expended by his administration to support the Cotton Tree land titling project, which was initially launched in 2013.
On this point, the Guyanese Leader underscored the importance of economic and financial independence through the acquisition of viable assets.
It is this backdrop that he encouraged those gathered to invest in wills and or legal inheritance documentations to secure generational wealth for their families.
“This title is a symbol of economic and financial empowerment because if you take this title now, you now have a legal value of your property…today when you receive this title your net worth, in some cases would be $10 million…what it does automatically is open up the opportunity for more than 4500 persons to have access to capital that can move you right up to the middle class and create the ability for all of you to become entrepreneurs, that is the inherent benefit that this title offers you,” President Ali explained.
Further, during his address, President Ali acknowledged the bulk of applications in the system, and the challenges with processing titles in a timely manner.
One such challenge is the availability of Land Court Judges, given that there are only two such Magistrates in the Judicial system.
In this regard, the Head of State revealed that the Attorney General Chambers will appoint temporary judges to address the backlog in Cotton Tree and surrounding areas, within a period of six months.
Moreover, the Ministry of Housing and Water has been instructed to have all outstanding lands on the West Coast of Berbice regularised within eight weeks, and provide land titles to residents in regularised areas within six weeks.
“Bush Lot, that is 166 persons who are currently under regularisation and within six weeks, this 166 families will have their titles in their hands from the Ministry of Housing. But it is not only the regularisation and the issuance of the title that is important, this now allows for a swift and smooth operation in the expansion of the infrastructure into your communities,” the Guyanese Leader stated.
The President noted that with this newly announced land titling initiative, over 4500 titles will be processed and over 18,000 persons will benefit from this initiative.
