KINGSTON, Jamaica – The National Land Agency (NLA), through the Systematic Land Registration process, is on target to issue 12,000 certificates of title over three years, ending in 2024.

This was revealed by senior director of the agency’s Adjudication Services Division, Shalise Porteous.

She informed that as of May 2023, a total of 7,824 certificates have been lodged and “we anticipate that by the end of this month or by the first week in June, we would have issued 8,322 adjudication certificates”.

Porteous explained that the projected figures for the certificates that will be issued over the coming weeks are “because we have some adjudication records which may be on display right now or they’re recently expired. We’re in the process of vetting the adjudication certificates for lodgement, so really our projection is 8,322”.

In January 2021, the Division began issuing certificates of titles to landowners in the parishes of St Elizabeth, St Catherine and Manchester.

The senior director explained that even though St Catherine has a relatively high registration rate, there are existing Cadastral Maps for parcels of land that were already surveyed under the former Land Administration and Management Programme.

“It takes some time to survey the parcels and lodge the cadastral map sheets at our Surveys and Mapping Division for certification… so where there are existing cadastral maps, all that would be required is for the legal team to enter and adjudicate rights and interests in land,” she said.

Porteous pointed out that work is also being done in the parish of Manchester, as some of the parcels of land in St Elizabeth straddle both parishes.

Meanwhile, she shared that the Division is also looking to do work in Portland, another parish with low land registration, in the near future.

“We’re finalising a Cabinet submission for the expansion of the Systematic Land Registration process to other parishes with low rates of land registration,” she said.

“Our chief mandate requires us to adjudicate rights and interests in 12,000 parcels, so it has been a matter of us being very proactive and creative in that,” Porteous added.

– JIS