Finance Minister, Samuel D. Tweah, has revealed that the Liberian government, under President George Manneh Weah’s leadership, will provide land deeds for squatters on government land.
Minister Tweah stated that squatters should not be threatened about government wanting to remove them from lands they have occupied for more than 50 years, but to protect them.
He made the revelation Friday at the launch of the Systemic Land Titling Project, held in Clara Town and Doe Community, Bushrod Island.
According to him, the project, under the Medici Land Governance (MLG), in collaboration with the Liberia Land Authority (LLA), will ensure that people living in slum communities across the country have deeds for the land.
Minister Tweah maintained that Clara Town and Doe Community are the first pilot project to ensure that people who have been living on land which belongs to government are protected under the law.
Meanwhile, the Chairman of LLA, J. Adams Manobah, said the project is intended to provide legal document to people rather then removing them.
Chairman Manobah noted that this process of legalization will prevent land conflict from taking place among the people.
He said the LLA and MLG will work along with community dwellers in all legal frameworks to obtain their land deeds.
For her part, the Senior Director of MLG, Ailey Kaiser Hughes, said her organization is implementing a free pilot project to issue land rights documentation to more than 1,000 landowners.
Director Hughes stated that MLG provides secure public records of land ownership and support agencies in digitalization of their current land records.
She indicated that Systemic Land Titling allows an agency to quickly and efficiently gather homeowner information for titling.