Property
Rural land law of 1998 requiring certificates convertible to title within a statutory window
Loi n° 98-750 reserves rural land ownership to Ivorian nationals and required customary holders to obtain a certificat foncier convertible into a Titre Foncier. The original ten-year window proved unworkable and has been repeatedly extended.
Key rules
- Jurisdiction — The Agence Foncière Rurale administers certificates; the Tribunal de première instance hears disputes.
- Deadline — Certificat foncier: application within the extended statutory period
- Deadline — Conversion to Titre Foncier: three years from the certificate
Governing law
- Loi n° 98-750 du 23 décembre 1998 relative au domaine foncier rural
- Loi n° 2013-655 prorogeant le délai de constatation des droits coutumiers
- Loi n° 2019-576 modifiant la loi sur le domaine foncier rural
In practice
The 1998 rural land law is inseparable from the ivoirité conflict: by reserving rural ownership to nationals it unsettled decades of Burkinabè and Malian farming in the west, and land disputes were a proximate cause of violence there. Successive extensions of the certification deadline reflect both administrative incapacity and the political impossibility of enforcing dispossession at scale.