Over the last decade, the Government of Rwanda (GoR) has introduced several land reforms through
formulation and enactment of enabling legal framework, establishment of land administration institutions
and implementation of national land tenure regularization. Further, the Land Act of 2013 stipulated that all
landholders must formally register their land. To support registration compliance, the GoR decentralized
the Land Administration System (LAS) to all District Land Bureaus (DLBs). This research made an
attempt to investigate the extent to which citizens: 1) are aware of the system and how to comply with
requirements; 2) have access to the system in terms of distance, time, procedure, and cost; and 3) are
impacted by services provided by the current LAS. Results indicate that almost all surveyed citizens (99%)
know about the formal LAS, whereas about half of them are not familiar with its procedures. As some
respondents (18%) did not use the LAS to register transactions, the study investigated the influence of
factors on citizens’ decision to use or not use the LAS. Results suggest that age, sex and income of
landowners, location, type of land use and how a property was acquired are important determinants of
citizens’ choice to use LAS or not. Moreover, the survey indicates that in some parts of the country
distances to DLBs from citizens’ homes are very long. Furthermore, results show that Rwandans do not
access credit despite having a land certificate which can be used as collateral for loan repayment security.
Based on findings, the study suggests to rapidly deploy trained land managers at more local administrative
levels, reconsider the level of fixed fees charged for registering land transactions based on size or property
value, and carry out further investigations on land disputes and on restrictions on subdivision of
agricultural land stipulated in the land law.