President Ashraf Ghani on Saturday handed out land ownership certificates to a number of Herat residents as part of a ceremony to confirm legal ownership of property for thousands of local landowners.

In total about 500 certificates were handed out on Saturday.

Addressing the ceremony, Ghani said he was determined to stop the practice of land grabbing and that all Afghans had a right to legal property ownership.

The ownership certificates were distributed to people who had houses in unplanned areas such as hillsides and hilltops.

Ghani said government is issuing land ownership certificates in a bid to cut down on land grabbing practices.

He also said projects such as TAPI were critical in helping to create jobs for Herat locals.  

“TAPI is one issue that we will work on and providing secure property for the people is another area. We will secure your properties by issuing property documents,” said Ghani. 

Head of Afghanistan Independent Land Authority Jawad Paikar said they will issue land ownership certificates to one million people by 2020. 

By having these certificates, the people will be recognized as the legal owners of the properties. 

According to Paikar, so far legal documents have been issued to 400,000 households and the process is ongoing. 

“The Independent Land Authority has effective plans and policies for modernizing the cities and registration of unofficial areas is one of these plans. After registration of the unplanned areas, the value of the properties in these areas will increase three times,” said Paikar. 

Herat governor Mohammad Asif Rahimi meanwhile said issuing land ownership certificates will increase the value of the properties. 

“Property certificates will increase the value of the property and will ease the buying and selling process and (the process) of receiving loans from credible banks,” said Rahimi.

According to Afghanistan Independent Land Authority, they will soon start rolling out land ownership certificate projects in eight key provinces.