The National Land Authority (NLA) has announced that land-related services will no longer take more than 30 days to be completed, following an increase in the number of certified land surveyors and expanded service capacity.
The announcement was made on March 31, 2025, during an event where the Rwanda Land Surveyors Association welcomed 305 newly trained professionals who completed a three-day training program organized in collaboration with NLA.
The training focused on improving efficiency and equipping surveyors with additional skills to handle services that were previously outside their scope, with the goal of speeding up service delivery.
Citizens have often raised concerns over delays in services such as land transfers, correcting ownership details, and boundary adjustments. These processes typically involve surveyors but require validation by NLA, which has sometimes caused long waiting periods.
Some surveyors noted that administrative procedures could delay approvals. For example, in cases where a land file needed modifications, applicants were previously required to go through multiple administrative levels before resubmission, prolonging the process.
According to Yvonne Akimana, Head of Land Surveying at NLA, the situation is expected to improve significantly due to the increased number of qualified professionals and new operational permissions granted to them.
She explained that surveyors are now authorized to remove certain administrative restrictions, known as “codes,” on land files once all required conditions are met. Previously, removing such restrictions required additional approvals from local government entities and digital platforms.
“We have given them the authority to remove the ‘code’ on a citizen’s file once verification is complete. If boundaries are agreed upon by all parties, they can directly submit the file for approval without passing through multiple administrative levels,” she said.
Akimana added that these reforms, combined with the addition of new professionals, will ensure that land service requests are processed within a maximum of 30 days.
Regarding concerns about land affected by public infrastructure such as roads, she acknowledged that some services, like adjusting taxable land size after road construction, are not yet available but are under consideration for future implementation.
