Nabakooba urges landlords on nominal ground rent
The minister asked landlords who would wish to sell their land to the Government to apply officially expressing interest.
Lands minister Judith Nabakooba addressing local leaders during a land and Parish Development Model (PDM)-update meeting at Kassanda district headquarters. (Courtesy photos)
NewVision Reporter
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Lands minister Judith Nabakooba has urged landlords complaining about the low rate of busuulu — locally known as nominal ground rent — to apply for compensation to enable the Government to buy such land using the Land Fund.
She made the call on Tuesday this week (January 7) during a land and Parish Development Model (PDM)-update meeting with local leaders at Kassanda district headquarters.
The meeting heard that Kassanda still has a few land cases majorly among family members but the Government through the use of the Land Fund, has bought land for tenants in the area.
Nabakooba said the rate of busuulu will not increase and tenants who were asked to embrace the new initiative that will see the lands ministry collect it (busuulu) on behalf of the landlords were gazetted to avoid falling victim to defaulting landlords.
She also said before taking the step of writing statutory regulations that will guide the collection process of busuulu, she engaged District Land Boards (DLB) and district leaders to get their views on whether its rates should change.
“The busuulu we have now still stands and that is what we are considering. For a village, they pay sh5,000, town council sh30,000, municipality sh40,000 and a city sh50,000 annually."
The minister asked landlords who would wish to sell their land to the Government to apply officially expressing interest and cautioned the public against land fragmentation, advocating for the utilization of land as a family to increase their production.
“President Yoweri Museveni has always reminded us to avoid dividing our land if you want to get good harvests. Keep the land under trustees and work as a family to develop it."
She stressed that her ministry has already finalized making statutory regulations that will guide the collection process of busuulu and once gazetted, she will table them on the floor of Parliament for approval.
“They will grant the ministry powers to create an account where landlords refuse to receive the busuulu, it can be deposited on that account to be opened by my permanent secretary."
According to the minister, this move comes on the backdrop of several complaints from tenants over increasing numbers of landlords refusing to take up their busuulu, using it as a tool to evict tenants from their land.
“Remember when you fail to pay busuulu for three consecutive years, the landlord holds you accountable as per the law directs,” Nabakooba added, noting that this initiative will also help to deal with absentee landlords.
Successful PDM stories
Meanwhile, despite a few challenges including extortion from intended beneficiaries, the PDM in Kassanda district has so far registered successful stories and it has manifested potential to alleviate poverty among the local communities, according to authorities.
Robert Kasendwa, the district commercial officer, said Kassanda received sh18.8 billion to kickstart the implementation of the PDM programme in the past two financial years and a significant sum of the money was given to the beneficiaries.
During the 2022/2023 financial year, sh9.6 billion was disbursed to their account and in this fiscal year, they received sh9.2 billion.
“We have 92 enterprise SACCOs and all of them received their money and are progressing well with their projects,” he said, noting that they have more than five enterprise projects.
In Kassanda, PDM beneficiaries ventured into piggery, dairy farming, coffee, beans, maize, banana, poultry, and Irish.
Phoebe Namulindwa, the Kassanda resident district commissioner, encouraged people to embrace PDM, noting that President Museveni looks at it as the final bullet that will kick poverty out of the grassroots.
“The President is sending us these funds to reduce the number of people using money lenders. We realized that a significant number of people had used their national identity cards as collateral,” she said.
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