ILG Registration

The Customary Land Section within the Land Administration Division is responsible and provides the Land Groups Incorporation service.

	What is Incorporation of Land Group?
	What is a Incorporated Land Group Certificate?
	Can an individual apply to incorporate and register a land group?
	How do I apply for incorporation and registration of a land group?
	Is there any application fees involved?
	Is there any other cost involved in the processing, registration and issuance of the the Certificate?
	When making an application will the land group be required to submit with the application a Constitution for the Land Group?
	Why do the Incorporated Land Groups need a Constitution?
	How do I know whether or not my application is accepted?
	How is the application processed?
	Can an aggrieve party object to the intention to incorporate a Land group?
	Who are the members of the Dispute Settlement Authority and who appoints them?
	Is the decision of the Dispute Settlement Authority final?
	Registration and Issuance of the Certificate of Recognition of the Incorporated Land Group.

What is Incorporation of Land Group?

The term "Incorporation of Land Group" refers to a process whereby Customary Land Owners organize themselves into their Clan groups according to their Customary Land Tenure practice and make application under the Land Groups Incorporation Act to be registered and recognized as a Land Group.

What is a Land Group Incorporated Certificate?

It is actually a Certificate of Recognition that certifies that the Land Group is incorporated under the Land Groups Incorporation Act 1974. It further gives recognition and certifies that the clan is a land owing clan and comes from that local area and owns certain parcels or pockets of customary land in their village, Ward Council Area or the District.

Can an individual apply to incorporate and register a land group?

An individual or a family group can not apply to incorporate and register a Land Group as it does not represent the wish of the Clan.

The Land Groups Incorporation Act 1974 provides for land owning groups (that is the Clans who owns land) to form Land Groups and register for recognition.

How do I apply for incorporation and registration of a land group?

To apply for recognition as a Land Group, an application must be lodged in the prescribed form. Currently there is not application fee and administration cost for processing and issuance of the certificate. The only cost would be the publishing cost for the Government Printing for gazettal of the Notice for Incorporation of Land Group.

The advantage of having Land Groups incorporated is that, there is a Constitution by which they are govern and the decisions made are in the best interest of the members. They have dispute settlement committee that plays a very important role in land ownership disputes, in-house disputes. The Office Bearers are empowered to negotiate with the Government or Resource Developers for a better deal on economic and infrastructure projects that may be undertaken on their customary land.

The process of Incorporating Land Groups under the Land Groups Incorporation Act is discussed below; 

The application is received and processed at the Customary Lands Section by the Registrar of Incorporated Land Groups with assistance from the Land Groups Incorporation Officer.

•  All application should be accompanied with a draft constitution of the Land Group to be incorporated. If an application is lodged without a draft constitution, the application is rejected and the applicant is advised to submit one.

•  Upon received of the application the Registrar of Incorporated Land Group checks the register to ensure that the Land group name to be incorporated should not be a name that is already registered in the register. If a similar name is located then the applicant is informed and advised of the need to change the proposed name of the Land Group and to make a new application.

•  The draft constitution is examined against the checklist to ensure that all stipulated requirements under Section 8 of the Land Groups Incorporated Act Chapter 147 is met. If any required information is omitted, a requisition (form 5) is sent to the applicant advising them to complete the required details and re-submit.

•  Upon meeting all requirements, the Notice of Intention to Incorporate land group is prepared for publication in the National Gazette.

•  When the Notice is published, copies of the gazette is made, attached to the copies of the application and the draft constitution of the Land Group (applicant) sent to the Dispute Settlement Authority with the Local Level Government to circulate to the villagers where the Land Group comes from, to the area where the Land Group to be incorporated claims to owner land.

The Dispute Settlement Authorities in the Local Level Government are the Village Court Magistrates, Ward Councilors, Land Mediators and the Area Affairs Manager in the District.

Note: The Registrar or Deputy-Registrar of Title should not recognize a Land Group until the Dispute-Settlement Authority has advised in written to act.

•  Copies of the gazette notice, application and is also sent to the National Broadcasting Corporation (NBC) for Radio announcements. An additional copy of the notice is sent to the District Lands Officer also for circulation at the District office prior to the Radio announcement.

•  Any person who is a aggrieved party has to lodge an objection in writing address to Registrar Incorporated Land Group within two months and the two months period commences from the date of publication of the Notice in the National Gazette.

If an objection is lodged, the reasons for objection is identified and instruction issued to the Dispute Settlement Authority to call for mediation and no further processing of the application until the dispute is resolved or the objection may be withdrawn.

When an objection to incorporation is received, a letter of notification of the objection is sent to the applicant advising that there will be no further processing of the application until the dispute or objection is resolved.

When the dispute is resolved or withdrawn the Dispute Settlement Authority in writing advises the Registrar of Incorporated Land Groups to proceed with the registration and issuance of the Certificate of Recognition of Incorporated Land Group.

If there is no dispute or objection to the incorporation then the Registrar of Incorporated Land Groups proceeds with the registration.

The land group becomes incorporated on the date the Registrar or Deputy Registrar of Titles signs and dates the Certificate of Incorporation and not on the date of publication of Notice of incorporation. The Register of Incorporated Land Group and the LAGIS database are therefore updated as at the date of signature and not gazettal.

•  The applicant is notified of the incorporation of the land group.

Form 20 is used if the certificate or recognition is posted to the applicant.

Form 21 is used if the applicant is to collect the certificate of recognition.

If the certificate of recognition is to be collected, the applicant must sign a notice of receipt.