Five banks embrace govt-backed land title deeds

CLOUDINE MATOLA

Lenders have begun embracing government-issued land tenure title deeds as bankable and transferable instruments, a breakthrough expected to unlock long-denied access to finance for farmers, Business Times can report.

For years, farmers have struggled to secure funding from financial institutions due to the absence of legally recognised ownership documents for the land they occupy.

The latest development was disclosed by Professor Obert Jiri, permanent secretary in the Ministry of Lands, Agriculture, Fisheries, Water and Rural Development. He, however, did not disclose the names of the banks that have embraced the land title deeds.

Professor Jiri said financial institutions were now satisfied with the structure and safeguards embedded in the new title deeds, prompting them to come on board.

“The banks are now happy. They looked at all the features of the title deed and the banks agreed and agreed that these title deeds are now bankable and they are also now transferable. Those two aspects are what define our title deeds,” he said.

“We currently are working with five banks, not from their branches, but they have even come to be physically present at the one-stop centre together with all our officers to ensure that the process of anyone getting this bankable title deed is as smooth as possible through these banks.

“So yes, bankability, transferability, the hallmark of these title deeds is what defines the current title.”

He said farmers had responded positively to the programme, which for the first time grants them ownership rights over the land they use, despite criticism and legal challenges from some quarters.

“In terms of acceptability, we have seen widespread excitement because of the title deeds programme. Yes, there are always critics here and there, including those people that would go to court to fight the title deeds programme. And of course, you know, the outcome that has already been delivered. But so far, so good in terms of acceptability. What is important is not individual connotations and individual viewpoints. What is important is what the owners of the land want.

“So, if the farmers themselves are excited about the title deeds programme, then no one else should really worry about it. It is the farmers who want title to their pieces of land, and the title has been given to them. And farmers, I can tell you, they are excited across the country to get this title deed. So, essentially, when one gets a title deed, you get to have your land as a private property.”

Professor Jiri said the programme had made tangible progress, with 500 title deeds delivered to farmers last year and a further 1 000 currently at various stages of production.

“We managed to do over the last year in 2025, over 500 physical deeds that were delivered to the farmers. We have over 1 000 deeds that are now in process, various stages of the production process. We also have tried to now increase the throughput for the title deeds programme. We do have 13 000 A2 farmers who are ready for title deeds because their farms have been surveyed. Of those that are surveyed, we have managed to connect these survey diagrams to the actual farmers for 7 756. So these farmers can now come in any time and we are now busy calling them and making sure that they can get their title deeds as quickly as possible,” he said.

He added that while progress among A1 farmers has been slower, momentum is building through complementary initiatives.

“Of course, the A1 farmers, the over 280 000, have been slow, but we have managed to do over 400 in Mashonaland Central and we are now rolling that programme out for the productivity booster kits, which delivers title deeds together with an irrigation system to the A1 farmers. We are now rolling it out to the rest of the country.

“So it has been slow, learning how to smoothly and legally do it. We remember we have the cash payments, which really are the majority of those 500. But now we also have the mortgage payments, which are done through the banks.

“And it is the mortgage payments which had a lot of teething problems because we needed a lot of legal instruments to ensure that the mortgage process is watertight. So, so far, we are now on cruise mode. We should expect more deeds to be rolled out in this quarter and certainly in the second quarter of 2026,” Professor Jiri said.

Efforts to obtain a comment from the Bankers Association of Zimbabwe were unsuccessful.