KAYANZA September 12th (ABP) – Women in Kayanza province (north) do not respond properly to the registration of their properties in the communal land service of Kayanza and the provincial branch of the land titles and national cadaster, following Burundian customs and mores. These are the words of those responsible for these services who are asking the administration to intensify awareness sessions so that women change their mentalities.
As shown by the data provided by the land service of Kayanza commune and the provincial branch of the land titles and national cadaster department, women in Kayanza province do not respond massively to the registration of their land properties.
By way of illustration, 37 out of 808 land certificates produced, or 4.57%, belong to women, including two from the Batwa community. Such a situation is also observed at the provincial branch of the land titles and national cadaster department because since February 2021, when this service has been operational in Kayanza province, seven women out of 111 men, or 6.30%, are entrusted to this service.
The person in charge of the communal land service in Kayanza, Mr. Dionise Nyandwi, as well as the head of the provincial branch of the land titles and national cadaster department, Mr. Olivier Bayubahe, consider that the low rate of registration of properties by the women finds its origin in Burundian customs and mores. Here, they explain that women who even manage to buy land properties attribute the title of beneficiary to their husbands or their sons. However, the women who had their land properties registered in the land service of the Kayanza commune think otherwise.
For example, a certain Générose Ciza from Musave hill says that before the registration of her land properties and the withdrawal of land certificates, she only took care of agriculture due to limited means. “After the withdrawal of my land certificates, I entrusted myself to the Cooperative of Savings and Credit (COOPEC) to mortgage them and contract loans that could allow me to carry out certain projects”, she testifies, specifying that she set up a restaurant that has already produced fruit. On the background of the step she has already taken, Mrs. Ciza asks her pairs to change their mentalities by having their land properties registered in the communal land service or in the land titles service in order to benefit from land certificates or land titles at mortgage in banks or microfinance to contract loans.
Such a call was also made by a certain Janvière Ndayizeye from Kirema hill, still in Kayanza commune, who also testifies that she has already carried out projects thanks to loans contracted on presentation of land certificates in banks.