More Lamp Beneficiaries to Access $90.8 Million Grant Facility

More Land Administration and Management Programme (LAMP) beneficiaries are to receive support under the $90.8 million grant facility set up by the Development Bank of Jamaica (DBJ, to enable them to obtain their titles.

Prime Minister, the Most Hon. Portia Simpson Miller, said that changes have been made to the terms of the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU), which governs the grant assistance.

The facility, for which the MoU was signed in 2014, was previously only available to some 2,000 landowners in the parishes of St. Catherine, Manchester, Clarendon and St. Elizabeth.

In addition, it was for persons, who had made partial payments on their applications for titles, but were having difficulties completing the payments, and they were required to satisfy certain conditions in order to access the support.

Mrs. Simpson Miller, who was addressing a LAMP Land Titling ceremony at the Linstead Baptist Church in  St. Catherine on Friday (Jan. 29), said the MoU was found to be “a bit inflexible and so did not fully address the needs (of beneficiaries).”

“The DBJ, in association of the Ministry of Water, Land, Environment, and Climate Change, has (therefore) modified the terms of the MoU. It is now more flexible so that persons can access the financial assistance they need. Access to the DBJ grant is open to all land owners is all LAMP project parishes,” she informed.

In the meantime, the Prime Minister presented titles to more than 150 residents of Linstead, who became registered land title holders for the first time.

She noted that many of the new landowners benefitted under the grant facility and thanked the DBJ for “standing in solidarity with potential land owners.”

Mrs. Simpson Miller said that in addition to providing security of tenure, having a registered certificate of title “creates value and opens up great possibilities for social and economic advancement. It provides economic independence and peace of mind for you and your families.”

The Prime Minister noted that the Government is working to “make more Jamaicans part of the ownership society that we are creating,” by enabling them to access  land titles.

LAMP has delivered 4, 876 titles over the past four years.  In addition, just under 7,000 persons have received their  titles through the Land Titling Programme of the Ministry of Transport, Works and Housing.

“We continue to work tirelessly to make secure land tenure available and accessible to all Jamaicans, this includes the poorest and most vulnerable among us,” the Prime Minister said.

During the ceremony, the Prime Minister presented a token to the 1,000^th title holder for this financial year.