The Landowner’s Affairs Division was created early in 2024 as part of a new organisational structure. Its purpose was derived from the strategic direction and focus of the Board of Trustees and Management to relook at the importance of landowners’ interest and empowerment in the development of their resources.
The new Division consists of:
- Landowners Affairs Department (looking after the interest of landowners and development of their resources to improve their livelihoods).
- Trust Department (looking after trust funds).
- Reserves Department (looking after reservation, de-reservation and allotment of itaukei land).
Under the leadership of the General Manager Landowners Affairs (GMLA) their role is to:
- Planning for sustainable development of resources.
- Formulate new policies and revised existing one to align to new business direction that affect the landowners.
- Strengthen strong relationship with landowners and engagement with stakeholders.
- Provide efficient financial and business advisory services to the landowners.
- Provide commercial and investment information to the landowners.
- Improve customer services.
- And to develop and secure business partnerships for the landowners.
Landowners Profiling, Land Use Planning and the Asset Capitalization Report (ACR) are some of its key initiatives to fully understand the LOU capacities and capabilities before any development assistance or program is recommended.
The Financial Literacy sessions are conducted with the key financial institutions including BSP Bank, BSP Life, ANZ Bank, Westpac Bank, HFC Bank, Fiji Development Bank (FDB), Fijian Holdings Ltd (FHL) and Unit Trust of Fiji (UTOF) targeting one of Division’s key roles and that is to facilitate training programs with an investment mindset by promoting compulsory savings for the landowners. But most importantly, it is to ensure that the landowner’s wealth is created and enhanced through the prudent use and management of their land resources.
In identifying these resources, they focus on creating each “LOU Profile” by assessing:
- Total land ownership with maps.
- Land classed in Reserve or Outside Reserve with its maps.
- The leases that are contained in the same, with those that have arrears and those that don’t.
- The population counts of the LOU, both male, female, those under 18 and those over 18 to further utilize the available land.
This information will then be formalized into an ACR that will further reveal the investment potentials that exist within each tokatoka, mataqali or yavusa. The ACR is very critical to identifying an LOU, who they are, what they have, how much they are worth and where they want to go to in terms business and commerce.
The Trust Department oversees the distribution of lease funds, manages the assignment and investment of land-owning unit (LOU) funds, and administers minors’ funds, including investment, insurance, and support for medical and educational needs.
The Reserves Department looks after allotment, reservation and de-reservation of itaukei land in Fiji. It is a Government-funded initiative through the Ministry of iTaukei Affairs whose key role is to conduct Reserves Sittings to verify the landowners’ claims and consent for allotment, de-reservation, reservation and ultimately for leasing and licensing purposes.