Thomson Reuters | Property Land Fundamental Economic Success Africa

7 May 2012

Property and Land are Fundamental to Economic Success in Africa

Presentations at World Bank Land Poverty Conference focus on land administration and government revenue management solutions.

Caption|REUTERS/Euroluftbild.de A leader in providing integrated property tax and land administration software for governments worldwide, Thomson Reuters presented two papers at the recent Annual World Bank Conference on Land and Poverty, highlighting how 21st Century land information management software is helping to bring an end to generations of conflict over land ownership.

During the conference, representatives from governments, civil society, academia, the private sector, and the development community discussed issues of concern to land practitioners and policy makers worldwide. Throughout the three-day event, papers were presented on key topics including:

land as a key development issue,
implementing good land governance, and
how civil society can contribute to making good land governance a reality.

Recognised globally for our work in providing affordable, easy to use, and scalable geographic information-based land governance software solutions, we are helping to deliver new levels of accurate information critical to the financial health of the region.

Liberia is proving to be a good case study on how to implement an information management solution suited to the complex and difficult requirements of a post-conflict country such as Liberia. By assisting Liberia to protect existing property information, and increase it’s transparency and accessibility, as well as by providing the tools to ensure that information relating to property is collected more accurately and efficiently, and in greater volume in the future, we are making sure that individuals property rights are protected.
In the Republic of South Africa, income derived from property rates is a critical source of revenue for municipalities such as Cape Town, to fund activities such as transportation infrastructure and services, repairs and maintenance to infrastructure, provision of housing, relief for the poor, fire services, parks and libraries. Additionally, collection of property tax revenue is one reason why Cape Town has been able to maintain a Moody’s Aa2 rating, especially important for the city to fund future development initiatives.

The papers presented show how Liberia and Cape Town are solving land management issues and introducing innovative software solutions to help improve their economies.

Frank Pichel, a property rights specialist and business development manager for our Tax & Accounting business, presented on the unique challenges and innovative solutions involved with the rehabilitation of land records and reconstruction of land rights in post-conflict Liberia. OpenTitle, a Thomson Reuters solution for collecting, documenting, and recording the documentary and geographic information related to property rights provides the platform for this success story.

A second paper from Thomson Reuters, presented by government specialist and senior director Ruel Williamson, focused on the success of Cape Town’s improved land governance and management through embracing new technologies in the valuation process of parcels. Using Thomson Reuters Government Revenue Management (GRM) software, Cape Town has realized quantifiable returns on its investments, while improving business efficiency and providing better outcome for its citizens.