LAND OWNERSHIP LAWS AND REGULATIONS IN IVORY COAST

• The Rural Land Plan (Plan Foncier Rural, PFR) which was introduced in 1989 and financed by the World Bank was the first practical effort to tackle the complex issue of land tenure security in Ivory Coast.
• The pilot project was designed to “survey existing land rights and land use; establish the limits of each plot through investigations carried out at the village level; and develop technically and financially feasible methods for registration of land”.
• The Rural Land Plan and the Rural Land Management and Community Infrastructure Development Project (Projet National de Gestion des Terroirs et d’Equipement Rural, PNGTER), introduced in 1997 and also financed by the World Bank became the foundation for the current legal framework for land ownership in Côte d’Ivoire.
• The 1998 Rural Land Law (Loi relative au domaine foncier rural, Loi n°98-750 du 23 décembre 1998 modifiée), in addition to “three decrees and 15 implementation orders” instituted between 1999 and 2002, was targeted at improving land ownership security by modifying customary rights into private land rights governed by the state.
• The law pioneered the explicit recognition of customary landholdings, if only for a transitional period. The law made provision for an initial period of ten years after enactment.

• In 2017, the World Bank sponsored the Cote d'Ivoire Land Policy Improvement and Implementation Project in order to resolve the challenges associated with the 1998 Rural Land Law.

FREEHOLD, FOREIGN OWNERSHIP AND RIGHTS OF TITLE

• There are two land tenure systems in Côte d’Ivoire, customary and statutory. The customary system has always been dominant, it accounts for over 98% of the rural land in the country.
• Different communities have different customary rules, but the country has basic customary laws which are common in every part of the country. The statutory system is only applicable when land is being registered, and this has only been achieved for around 2% of rural land so far.
• The 1998 Rural Land Law, as revised by decrees, projected that by 2019 Ivoirian citizens who possess customary ownership rights to land will register their land and acquire a personal land title. Foreigners can acquire emphyteutic leases. Theoretically, the customary land tenure system will no longer be in use after 2019.

The major customary forms of land ownership in Côte d’Ivoire include the following:

• Rights of permanent use: These rights are the birthright of individuals who are descendants of the original occupants of a particular land. Such rights are passed from one generation to another.
• Rights to use and benefit from land: People who migrated from another part of Côte d’Ivoire as well as from other countries can acquire land from a “tuteur”, a local guardian and they repay with “token gifts and loyalty or, occasionally, with more substantial payment in the form of cash, product or labor”. Much of the cocoa and coffee in Côte d’Ivoire’s is produced by lands held in this way by migrants.
•  Leasehold rights: People who have been granted leasehold rights to a particular land must enter into a formal agreement with the owner of the land. The leasehold rights are customary rights if the land is unregistered.

The major statutory forms of land ownership in Côte d’Ivoire include the following:

•  Land certificate: Individuals who have a land certificate must apply for a land title after three years. This only applies to Ivoirian citizens.
•  Freehold rights: Individuals who hold the right of title to a particular of land possess freehold rights. Only the Ivoirian state, public bodies and Ivoirian citizens are allowed to own land in rural areas.
• A land title right can be sold to another Ivoirian or passed on to descendants. The land can also be leased to foreigners or private companies, but cannot be sold to them.
•  Emphyteutic lease: This type of lease is most secure form of land tenure for foreigners and it gives the holders of the land tenure rights for a period of 18 to 99 years which is heritable and alienable. Although they do not own the land, they possess all that is built and produced on the land.
• Foreigners are not allowed to have freehold ownership of land in Côte d’Ivoire.

LAND REGISTRATION PROCESS AND REGISTRY

• Acquiring a Location Certificate.
• Engaging the notary to solicit the record of the real estate rights before the Land Registry.
• Obtaining of a tax clearance by the notary.
• Preparation of the sale deed.
• Payment of all the required registration fees.
• Registration of the land transfer at the Land Registry.

LAND/PROPERTY LEGAL FRAMEWORK

• In Mali, the legal frameworks governing land rights include the 1992 Constitution of the Republic of Mali, the amended 2000 Land Code, and the Agricultural Orientation Law which was newly enacted as the Agricultural Land Law.
• The 1992 Constitution of the Republic of Mali provides citizens with the ability to own and protect their properties, the amended 2000 Land Code focuses on state properties and land code, while the Agricultural Land Law redefines state-owned land.
• There is also the Pastoral Charter which recognizes pastoralists and grants them access to natural resources.
• In all these, however, and from a pragmatic point of view, customary laws govern most land rights, especially in rural areas. Furthermore, the Agricultural Orientation Law/Agricultural Land Law recognizes customary laws and its administrations.
• Under customary rights, "traditional leaders allocate usufruct rights over land and its resources in a communal approach to land ownership and use."

RIGHTS OF TITLE AND LAND TENURES

• According to the US Department of State in its 2018 Investment Climate Statements, the Malian National Land Agency (DNDC) provides three types of land properties or tenure types:

•  Ownership (Le titre foncier): This permit grants complete, full property ownership to individuals/entities. Individuals or entities who seek freehold interests must obtain the land title and register it with the state.
•  Leasehold (Permis d’occuper): This permit grants an entity the right to occupy land (not full ownership) after paying a fee. "The state can lease its land to individuals and entities for periods of 50 years, or as otherwise agreed to by the Council of Ministers and the lessee." It is also possible to convert this permit to an ownership permit by "entering into a purchase agreement with a lessee," which allows for the transfer of ownership after registration.
•  Farming rights: These are permits that grant certain agricultural rights to rural agricultural communities.


• Other land tenures and rights of titles that exist in Mali include:

•  Rural concession: This permits grants to rural concessions to state lands that are unregistered. "The concession is conditional upon the agreed development within an established time frame."
•  Permit rights: This permit grants occupation permits, including the residential use of land, to urban land to individuals.
• Use of land by pastoralists: This permit allows pastoralists to access to natural pasture and fallow land.

• In summary, among the various rights of titles and land tenures, including ownership and leasehold rights, the ownership permit allows individuals/entities to hold full property ownership to landed properties.

LAND OWNERSHIP: WHO CAN OWN/OBTAIN LAND

• Under the legal framework of Mali, individuals, entities, and the state can own land, as well as transfer land. A new law enacted in 2017 also empowered rural communities to collectively own some lands.
• As already highlighted, the Land Code allows holders of concessions and leases to convert their rights to ownership interests.
• As per customary laws, land can be obtained by the following means (quoted verbatim):
• Founding or conquering a village.
• Inheritance, gifts and loans.
• Leasing and sharecropping.
• Pastoralists’ exercise of use rights.

LAND OWNERSHIP: FOREIGNERS

• As part of the advantages guaranteed to foreign investors, the Malian Investment Code allows foreign entities, such as investors, to hold land interests.
• As per the law, "foreigners, who intend to acquire land, must comply with the laws governing the acquisition and protection of land and property rights in Mali." The foreign entity would then register the property in a five-stage process, as described in the next subheading.

LAND/TITLE REGISTRY

• "The Land Code requires each of the 703 communes in Mali to set up a land register and conduct a land inventory."
• However, the US Department of State in its 2018 Investment Climate Statements disclosed the lack of a nationwide land registry in Mali, an issue that has led to competing claims for land. It attributed this problem to differences in government structure, "as the local, regional, and national level of government are all involved in land administration." A World Bank document corroborated this report while referring to it as "legal pluralism."
• Furthermore, the report showed that it is common for investors, entities and communities to encounter "multiple attributions of the same land." Due to this fuzzy land registration practices, there arise frequent conflicts. This report cited a case where the government ordered the demolition of houses built in lands allocated by the state for the construction of housing projects.
• According to data collected by the World Bank’s 2019 Doing Business Report, "registering properties in Mali requires 5 steps, takes 29 days, and costs 11.1% of the property value."
• Furthermore, these steps include:
•  Verification: The buyer would have to perform due diligence in verifying the identity of the proprietor, as well as the status of the title. Intending buyers can check with the appropriate land agency, the “Bureau de la Conservation Foncière.” With the new Agricultural Land Law, potential buyers could also consult the Village Land Commission.
•  Evaluation: This involves the price evaluation of the property. The appropriate experts are commonly called “Courtiers Informels de l’Immobilier.”
•  Preparation of sales agreement: This commonly involves a "notary," as legally required.
•  Registration: The sales agreement is registered with the "Service des Domaines et du Cadastre." The parties involved would pay for stamp duties and a fixed registry tax. As per the new Agricultural Land Law, the Village Land Commission also plays a role in the formalization of land rights.
•  Transfer of title: This involves the actual transfer of the property title with the Land Registry, “Bureau de la Conservation Foncière.”


• In view of the new Agricultural Land Law in 2017, it is expected that this issue of "legal pluralism" would be solved. Since most land rights are governed and administered by customary rights/laws, this new law creates two new registers — the land possession registry and the land transaction registry. They will be managed by municipal authorities such as the mayor.
• Also, the law establishes two institutions on the village level — the Village Land Commission and the National Farmland Observatory. The former will "facilitate consultations on land issues and the formalization of land rights." The later will "document land issues and monitor the implementation of the law and land management practices in rural areas." It will also regularly publish reports on the state of land in the nations.

THE AGRICULTURAL LAND LAW (LOI FONCIERE AGRICOLE — LFA)

• This law was based on the 2006 Agricultural Orientation Law (Loi d’Orientation Agricole — LOA). It was adopted by the Malian National Assembly and enacted by the Malian President in 2017.
• The main highlight of this new law is the redefinition of state-owned lands. Previously, unregistered customary lands were classified as state lands. However, with this new law, "no land held under customary laws shall be included in state lands."
• This new law also creates two new types of title, the customary land certificate (attestation de detention coutumière) and the certificate of land possession (attestation de possession foncière). These new certificates are highly beneficial to local communities and farmers because "they can be transmitted to their heirs, sold, and used as collateral for loans."
• This law also strengthens customary laws, which grants rural communities the ability to own some lands collectively. In addition, it also strengthens the institution and administration of customary laws.
• Lastly, it granted the allocation of 15% of state-owned lands to women in the country, strengthening their access to portions of land.

RESEARCH STRATEGY

LAND OWNERSHIP LAWS AND REGULATIONS IN SENEGAL

• In 1964, the government of Senegal introduced the National Domain Law to promote land access and to facilitate the productive use of land.
• The National Domain Law categorized around 97% of Senegalese land as state-owned. The remaining 2–3% of land which was registered under colonial rule as freehold maintained its private ownership.
• The National Domain Law categorized land to be within urban, classified, agricultural, or pioneer zones. The control over land was also decentralized to local governments (municipalities and rural communities).
• Customary law governs most land in Senegal to a great extent. Land in rural areas is held communally by families and their descendants, although ownership rights have gotten highly personalized over time.
• Land loans, leases, and gifts which are governed by local customary law are commonplace in most areas of Senegal.

FREEHOLD AND FOREIGN OWNERSHIP

• Three types of land tenure are legally recognized in Senegal. They are ownership, leasehold, and occupancy rights. Individuals and entities can acquire land ownership under formal law and possess “all freehold rights, including the right to exclusive possession, use, and transfer”.
• Individuals or entities can acquire leaseholds of private land or land in the national domain that is transferable. Leases can be obtained for up to 30-year terms and can be renewed.
• There are two types of occupancy rights: “surface rights and occupancy under administrative certificates (ACs)”.
• Surface rights can be obtained for urban land for a period of 50 years which can be renewed once for another 50 years. Surface rights can only be transferred after five years and a surface right holder can obtain freehold ownership rights after payment of fees, taxes, and the land’s administrative cost.
• Occupancy under administrative certificate is temporary and can be revoked by the government and converted to public land use. The administrative certificate can be converted to leasehold if the land undergoes development in line with an approved plan.
• Land in the Senegalese national domain cannot be sold. The formal land-sale market is restricted to privately held freehold land.
• The quantity of registered freehold land which was 2–3% of total holdings as of 1964 has increased because some people who held surface rights converted them to freehold rights. However, the number of registered freehold land is believed to be quite small as a result of the limited number of informal settlements which have been regularized as well as the high cost of acquiring freehold title.
• Foreign ownership of property in Senegal is not discriminated against. Foreigners can also own 100% of business in most sectors.
• Senegal operates the reciprocity principle, which states that “foreigners are only allowed to invest in freehold property when locals are allowed to do the same in the foreigner's country of origin”.

LAND CLASSIFICATION AND RIGHTS OF TITLE

• Land in Senegal is classified as being either in the national domain or the private domain. Land in the national domain comprise state land, which is further categorized as “either non-transferable public land or transferable state land”. Land in the private domain consist of land which is “held by individuals or entities under registered title documents”.
• Land in Senegal is also categorized by zone; namely urban, classified, territorial, and pioneer.
•  Urban zones (zones urbaines) are lands in community settlements or urban areas.
•  Classified zones (zones classes) include lands which are governed by specific laws, such as “classified forests, national parks, and other government protected areas”.
•  Territorial zones (zones de terroir) include land used for agriculture (including pastureland) and forests in the national domain which are non-classified.
•  Pioneer zones (zones pionnières) include all other land.
• Lands in the territorial zones are managed and allocated by rural councils, while lands in the pioneer zones are governed by the central government. The central government can decide to reclassify selected territorial land as pioneer zones for public utility use and removed them from the control of the rural councils.
• About one-third of urban land is in informal settlements. Some residents obtain claim rights to their plots after acquiring an occupancy certificate issued by the government or after obtaining informal documentation showing proof of a land purchase or lease. A foreigner can purchase land in Senegal either from a person or the government.

LAND REGISTRATION PROCESS AND REGISTRY

• Obtaining a certificate of non-encumbrance from the Land Registry.
• Engaging the notary to draft and execute a promissory agreement.
• Filing a request at the Director of Taxes and Property to obtain a transfer authorization.
• Writing of the deed of sale by the notary after receiving the Director's approval.
• Forwarding the request of change of ownership by the notary to the Land Registry.
• When buying land from the government, the buyer approaches the Government's investment centre, APIX (Agence Nationale Charge de le Promotion de L'investissement et des Grands Travaux). It is required for the Cadastral service to issue a map of the specified land, and to “state whether it is public domain, private, or national domain land”.
• For property purchased from SICAP SA (Cape Verde Real Estate Company), the land title can be obtained through the Directorate of Legal Affairs of SICAP SA.

Freehold Ownership and Rights of Title

• Congo operates a Land Tenure system whereby all the land in the state belongs exclusively to the Congolese state as stipulated in the 1973 General Property Law (Law No. 73-021). However, all natural or legal persons/entities can obtain a right to possession of land in the country through a concession contract. Where land is unallocated, especially in rural areas, the constitution permits customary law to govern use-rights of the land.
• Land can be possessed freehold in the Democratic Republic of Congo in the sense that a person can have the right to a piece of land in perpetuity with no time limit, but the person must be a natural Congolese national.
• This kind of ownership is called "Concession in Perpetuity" and grants the beneficiary the right to enjoy the land perpetually as long as the obligations and conditions upon which the concession was granted are being met. The beneficiary has ownership of everything on the land, such as building and plants and anything built and/or planted on the land.
• The conditions upon which the land can be revoked are limited and specified in the constitution. In such a case, the concessionaire will be compensated for any building or plant or anything on the land of which he/she is the owner.
• It is important to note that although this is the legally stated way of owning land, some estimate that up to 97% of all the land in Congo are administered via customary law and land ownership is mostly based on inheritance.
• Even in urban and semi-urban areas where land possession is via constitutionally stipulated concession described above, "an estimated 77% of residents reportedly own their own plots, but only about 30% have rights recognized under formal law."

Foreigners Owning Land and Their Right to Title

• Foreigners can obtain a right of possession called Ordinary/Standard Concession.
• An Ordinary/Standard Concession is a form of leasehold that grants the beneficiary the right to full enjoyment of the land as long as the value of the land is maintained and the stipulated duty is paid.
• The term of the ordinary concession is a renewable 25-year term and the concession can only be revoked under limited and specific conditions stipulated in the constitution. The foreigner or foreign entity has full right to the land and can build/plant on it or remove any building/plant on the land.
• In practice, once a foreign entity (a person or corporation) has acquired land via ordinary concession and built on it, the 25-year renewal is generally automatic and guaranteed after the initial 25 years have elapsed as long as the land has been developed.
• Another kind of concession that allows a foreigner to possess land in Congo is usufructuary right. In this case, the beneficiary has the right to enjoy the land for a renewable 25 years but must maintain the land in its original state and has no right to dispose of any building on the land except in specific circumstances.
• Foreign investors building in DR Congo are generally aware of the Land Tenure system but do not mind because the 25-year concessions are generally automatically renewed and concessions can easily be transferred to another entity/person.
• The state has the obligation to safeguard the concessionaire's undisturbed use of the land for the duration of the concession.
• Land possession in urban and semi-urban areas are generally governed by the constitution and the right to title explained above generally applies to all land dealings.
• Generally, corporations or foreigners seeking large land holdings get the right to land through concessions as enshrined in the formal law or constitution from the government in both rural and urban areas. However, foreigners seeking small land holdings in rural areas are generally subject to customary laws which are administered by chiefs.

Land Registry

• The Democratic Republic of the Congo has a land registry which operates under the Ministry of Land Affairs.
• The Ministry of Land Affairs is responsible for the administration of all the land in Congo, including those in the rural and urban areas.
• In addition to the land registry that handles land registrations, the Ministry of Land Affairs has other departments that handle "surveys, management of state land concessions (including allocation of concessions), and provide a land-dispute service."

Mali (2011)

• A single-story, detached house of average quality with a masonry (brick or block) or a timber frame goes for the price $196 per square meter.
• A two-story attached house, mass market, center unit in terrace/row of four units goes for the price of $223 per square meter.
• A low-rise apartment, mass market with a concrete frame, brick or block infill and a walk-up goes for $403 per square meter.
• A high-rise apartment of average quality with a concrete frame and a brick or block infill goes for $456 per square meter.
• The cost of cement imported by Mali in 2014 was $250/ton.

Ivory Coast/Côte d’Ivoire (2011)

• A single-story, detached house of average quality with a masonry (brick or block) or a timber frame goes for the price $626 per square meter.
• A two-story attached house, mass market, center unit in terrace/row of four units goes for the price of $678 per square meter.
• A low-rise apartment, mass market, with a concrete frame, brick or block infill and a walk-up goes for $1,007 per square meter.
• A high-rise apartment of average quality with a concrete frame and a brick or block infill goes for $1,272 per square meter.
• The cost of cement imported by Ivory Coast in 2014 was $200.
• Since 2011 the Building and Construction sectors has been one of the sectors leading in growth. Approximately 40.5% of imported construction equipment from 2016 to 2017 was imported from the U.S. The continuous demand for cement shows how dynamic the sector is and how great the need is for more suppliers.

RESEARCH STRATEGY

OVERVIEW OF CONSTRUCTION IN AFRICA

• Construction costs vary greatly across the 54 countries of Africa. Researchers on the continent use various analytical methods to estimate the costs, i.e., cost per square meter and cost of a basic generic house.
• These cost estimates are for buildings constructed in the capital cities of African countries. For instance, the costs of construction in Senegal would be represented by the costs of constructing a building in Dakar City.

1. SENEGAL – Dakar

• According to a report by AECOM, an American multinational engineering firm, the costs of construction in Senegal vary depending on the type of construction, i.e., residential, commercial/retail, industrial, hotel and others.
• For residential construction, an average multiunit high-rise building would cost $1300 per square meter; $2,045 per square meter for a luxury high-rise unit; and $3,120 per square meter for an individual house.
• For commercial/retail construction, the average standard high-rise office costs $1,330 per square meter; $2,170 per square meter for luxury high-rise offices; and $1,745 per square meter for a major shopping center in the central business district.
• For industrial construction, a light-duty factory would cost $1,195 per square meter versus $1,915 per square meter for a heavy-duty factory.
• For hotel construction, a 3-star budget hotel would cost $175,000 per square meter; while a 5-star luxury hotel would cost $412,000 per square meter; and $520,000 per square meter for a resort style hotel. Under other types of construction, it costs $1,125 per square meter to build a multistory parking lot.

FACTORS DRIVING UP CONSTRUCTION COSTS

• Research did not indicate whether labor costs and customs duties drive up the costs of construction. Instead, the construction costs in Senegal are affected by high cost of land, high cost of financing, price speculation and inadequate supply.
• In Senegal, there are few developers and many speculators primarily targeting higher income earners. Rents and property prices vary depending on three key factors: geographical location, architectural plan and design, and the quality of material used for construction.
•  Speculation is leading to price increases in suburbs in Dakar. Additionally, high interest rates of 7.62 percent are also driving the cost of rents in the urban areas, leading to high costs of construction.

2. DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO (DRC) – Kolwezi

• In the DRC, the costs associated with constructing a formal generic house in the main city measuring 55 square meters and on a 120 square meter piece of land are elaborated below.
• According to a report by Housing Finance Africa, the cost of acquiring a 120 square meter piece of land in the DRC in 2016 was $3,352 (or approximately $27.93 per square meter).
•  Infrastructure costs are estimated at around $4,006; compliance costs $350; construction costs $36,371; other development costs reach approximately $7,575.
• In 2016, the total costs associated with building a 55 square meter house on a 120 square meter piece of land in the DRC were $51,654.
• Based on the figures above, to estimate the cost of construction per square meter of land, we divide the total costs by the total area of the building. Thus, $51,654 ÷ 55 square meters = $939 per square meter.

FACTORS DRIVING UP COSTS

• Doing business in the DRC is difficult as the country is ranked 184 out of 190 for ease of doing business.
• Conflicts, corruption and mismanagement of resources have undermined the country’s capability of conducting business.
• In the real estate sector, the country lacks proper legal and political frameworks necessary to create an environment conducive to conducting real estate business.
• The construction sector suffers from a very low number of property developers. Moreover, there are no institutions specializing in funding real estate projects.
• Poor logistics and warehousing services in the country affect cement imports, further undermining the potential of real estate in the country.

RESEARCH STRATEGY

KEY INSIGHTS

• After determining that information on the general housing/accommodation market for foreign aid and NGO workers working in Mali was largely unavailable in the public domain, we targeted the United Nations in our search for insightful information on the research question.
• The United Nations uses a common system of salaries and allowances for all its employees working in various UN agencies.
• In UN agencies like UNHCR, international staff are commonly referred to as P staff and they are "generally recruited to serve abroad for functions which require a high level of functional and managerial skills and involve a supervisory responsibility."
• According to the UN salary scale that was published in January 2019, highest level of P staff i.e. P1 to P5 earn a net salary of between $106,761 (highest level of P5 staff) and $50,337 (highest level of P1 staff).
• According to the UN salary scale lowest level of P staff from P1 to P5 earn a net salary of between $87,108 (lowest level of P5 staff) and $37,012 (lowest level of P1 staff).
• A 2017 blog article on Career Point Kenya estimated that international UN employees including those that work in Kenya are paid a house allowance that is approximately 10% of their salaries.
• With this information, we estimated that the highest level of P5 UN staff are paid a house allowance of $10,676 per year (10% of $106,761) while the highest level of P1 UN staff are paid a house allowance of $5,033 per year (10% of $50,337).
• On the other hand, we estimated that the lowest level of P5 UN staff are paid a house allowance of $8,710 per year (10% of $87,108) while the lowest level of P1 UN staff are paid a house allowance of $3,701 per year (10% of $37,012).
• We this concluded that on average, UN international staff of the P category are allocated between an estimated $3,701 (lowest) and $10,676 (highest) in housing allowance. This applies to Mali because as mentioned earlier, the United Nations uses a common system of salaries and allowances for all workers in all countries.

HOUSING AVAILABLE TO WORKERS

• United Nations staff are sometimes provided with housing by host governments, agencies, or organizations. To this fact, we made an educated assumption that the quality of housing available to international UN staff in Mali and other African countries is of good quality.
• Additionally, with an annual housing allowance of between $3,701 and $10,676, UN staff have the financial power to rent out the highest quality of housing in African countries in the absence of accommodation provision by host governments, agencies, or organizations.

RESEARCH STRATEGY