A day after government confirmed the nationwide rollout of digital title deeds, the most immediate shift is happening not on paper, but on the ground with banks now sitting inside the land registry itself, a move officials say finally links land ownership to real economic power.
Permanent Secretary for Lands, Agriculture, Fisheries, Water and Rural Development Obert Jiri said the presence of five banks at the One-Stop Centre marks a break from decades where farmers held land but could not use it to unlock capital.
"For the first time, title deeds are fully accepted by banks as collateral. This changes farming from survival to business,” he said.
The new system allows farmers to initiate applications digitally and complete verification through a single coordinated process involving lands, justice, finance and local government officials.
According to Prof Jiri, the reform answers long standing complaints about delays, overlapping mandates and disputes that left landholders exposed.
You no longer move from office to office. The system now protects the owner and the lender,” he said.
Government has also used the rollout to issue a blunt warning to Zimbabweans buying land informally, particularly those sending money from abroad. “
Communal land is not for sale. Anyone selling it is breaking the law, and buyers will lose everything,” Prof Jiri said, stressing that only two ministries are legally authorised to allocate land.
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He added that genuine surveyors are officially accredited and carry written authority.
The programme is open to A1 and A2 farmers, small-scale commercial farmers, women, youth and remaining white commercial farmers, provided they hold Zimbabwean identification.
Permanent Secretary Jiri said 7,756 farms have already been surveyed and cleared, while deeds are being issued in individual names to avoid future inheritance disputes.
“Ownership must be clear today so families are not fighting tomorrow,” he said.
New land allocations remain temporarily frozen as audits continue, a move Jiri
said was necessary to stabilise the system.
“We cannot build certainty on top of unresolved disputes,” he said.
With land now treated as a financial instrument rather than a political promise, the government insists the focus has shifted from allocation to protection and from possession to productivity.
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