Speedy deeds: Zanzibar goes digital to prove property ownership

A man hold the tablet used to collect data in Shakani in Zanzibar to help issue title deeds for islanders. — Thomson Reuters Foundation

A team of Zanzibari data collectors armed with tablets have gathered enough information from hundreds of people on the Tanzanian archipelago to issue each of them a deed to their land in 20 minutes – a process that typically takes up to five years.

The project run by Kenya-based technology consulting company Spatial Collective has produced official documentation for about 700 land parcels in a southern town called Shakani since it launched last year.