Title deeds to unlock US$20bn land value

Nyasha Simbisai

Agriculture Correspondent

GOVERNMENT’S agricultural land tenure reforms are set to unlock an estimated US$20 billion in land value, opening new avenues for long-term agricultural financing, investment and intergenerational wealth creation as the country moves to convert land into secure and bankable economic assets.

The reforms will see beneficiaries obtaining secure, transferable and registrable title, backed by a digitised deeds system that will enable financial institutions to verify ownership and facilitate lending for productive investment.

The developments emerged at a High-Level Stakeholder Breakfast Meeting on Advancing Land Tenure Reform, Title Deeds, Bankability and Agricultural Investment held at a hotel in Harare today.

The meeting brought together Lands, Agriculture, Mechanisation and Water Resources Development Minister Dr Anxious Jongwe Masuka, Finance, Economic Development and Investment Promotion Minister Professor Mthuli Ncube, Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ziyambi Ziyambi, Local Government and Public Works Minister Daniel Garwe, Lands Deputy Minister Vangelis Haritatos, businessman Dr Kudakwashe Tagwirei, financial institutions, farmers, investors and other stakeholders.

Prof Ncube said preliminary valuations showed that agricultural land covered by the reforms represented enormous economic value which was presently not fully captured in the formal economy.

“The average price of land in these farms is about six cents per square metre. When we add up this value, it comes to almost US$20 billion,” he said.

“That US$20 billion is missing in our GDP figure. It needs to be put back into the GDP figure.”

Prof Ncube said secure property rights would give farmers greater confidence to undertake long-term investments such as dams, irrigation infrastructure and other permanent improvements, while giving financial institutions greater certainty when extending credit.

However, he warned that a title deed on its own was not a loan, stressing that bankability would ultimately depend on the farmer’s ability to operate a viable enterprise and generate sufficient cash flows to repay borrowing.

“Banks lend primarily against the capacity of an enterprise to generate cash flows and then repay. Collateral strengthens that proposition by reducing loss in the event of default,” Prof Ncube said.

Farmers would therefore require viable business plans, predictable repayment capacity and supporting services including insurance, extension, storage facilities, reliable markets and climate-risk protection.

Speaking at the same occasion, Chairman of the Land Tenure Implementation Committee, Dr Tagwirei said the reforms represented the next phase of Zimbabwe’s agrarian transformation, moving beyond redistribution towards turning secure land rights into productive capital.

“To be quite clear, the deed alone does not create wealth. Value is created in the ecosystem built around secure tenure: finance, markets, infrastructure, inputs, technology and technical support,” he said.

“Success is measured not by deeds issued, but by security translated into economic empowerment.”

Dr Tagwirei challenged banks and insurance companies to regard the programme as an investment opportunity and develop financial products that allow farmers to use secure tenure to access seasonal finance, asset financing, insurance and longer-term capital.

Dr Tagwirei said as of August 24, 2026, the one-stop centre had surveyed 27 045 farms, with 10 231 matched to beneficiaries, while 1 824 agreements of sale valued at about US$110 million had been concluded.

The next challenge, he said, was accelerating surveying, valuation and registration to take the programme to scale.

The Government is also strengthening security around the deeds registry through digitisation and securitisation of title documents, reducing the risk of tampering, double allocations and disappearance or manipulation of land records.

The system is expected to allow banks to verify title information electronically, improving efficiency when farmers seek financing against their properties.

Secure tenure, stakeholders heard, would also protect farmers against arbitrary uncertainty over their holdings and encourage investment in infrastructure whose returns may take several years to realise.

The Minister of Lands, Agriculture, Mechanisation and Water Development, Dr Masuka said the reforms dovetailed with Government’s broader transformation of agriculture from a predominantly subsistence activity into a business capable of driving rural development and industrialisation.

“Agriculture, because of its inclusive nature, has the potential to uplift the majority of Zimbabweans out of poverty so that they too become economic participants and not mere economic spectators,” he said.

He said the philosophy underpinning Government programmes was that agriculture should drive rural development, rural development should catalyse rural industrialisation, and rural industrialisation should accelerate attainment of Vision 2030.

The title deeds programme is anchored in the National Development Strategy and the Agriculture, Food Systems and Rural Transformation Strategy, with Government seeking to ensure that secure tenure translates into higher productivity, investment and incomes.

The reforms are also expected to strengthen inheritance rights and create intergenerational wealth while ensuring women, young people, spouses, heirs and lawful landholders are adequately protected.

Stakeholders stressed that the programme should ultimately be judged not merely by the number of title deeds issued, but by the productive investments, businesses, jobs and incomes generated from the newly secured assets.

The meeting crystallised the reform agenda around three objectives — secure tenure, bankable land and productive land — as Government seeks to transform the gains of land reform into investable capital while safeguarding landholders’ rights.