Even though access to land remains a challenging factor for the private sector, significant progress has been made concerning land ownership in South Sudan. The Land Act (Feb 2009) provides for three types of land: public land, community land & private land:
Private Land:
Non-citizens may acquire leaseholds up to 99 years.
Public Land:
Investors may be allocated publicly owned land by the national or state governments, subject to the following conditions:
- Investor must obtain an investment certificate from the Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Investment and provide appropriate financial and environmental guarantees
Activity should contribute economically and socially to development of community; community must be consulted, and all affected parties must be compensated
- Leases up to 30 years for agriculture investments, renewable by mutual consent
- Leases up to 60 years for forestry investments, renewable by mutual consent
- Leases for mines and quarries for the life of the mine or quarry.
Community Land:
Traditional authority in a community may allocate customary land rights for residential, agricultural, forestry and grazing purposes, but land must be registered, community must be consulted, and in the case of land beyond 250 hectares, the State office must be involved.
Any investor wanting to make use of land in either urban or rural areas should be aware of old land rights (i.e. land rights from before the war in 1983) and the rights of returnees to that land (including the right to make use of the land for pasture). The security of land tenure is still very weak.
For investment in agriculture and natural resources, land can be made available for long-term lease.