The city government of Addis Ababa is preparing to give tentative title deed documents by investigating the cases of those land holders without any documents and identifying those who deserve to be given the documents, it said.
“It is known that there is a complicated problem in Addis Ababa that has been around for years related to land and land-related issues,” read a letter sent by Mulugeta Admassu, the Communication Affairs Support Process head at the office of the city manager to the media. The letter included that the Addis Ababa Administration is making various efforts to resolve the problems.
“One of these endeavors is attempting to solve the problems faced by land holders who do not have any title deeds,” the letter said. The tentative title deed documents will be issued to various selected land holders in selected kebeles and districts. The office will announce the details at a press conference on February 8, 2009, at the conference hall of the city municipality.
The existing directive, the Land Holding Administration Directive, issued a year ago, considers plots that have been occupied without any title deeds until May 1996, if they meet the criteria set for them in two categories of residential and company holdings. The criteria include the holders’ identity to be found in the Nortech Map that had been prepared before 1996. It also considers sizes of plots to be given to each holder. There are also expected to be no tax arrears.
[Fortune]