2025 Reform: Why Village Attestation Is No Longer Sufficient to Obtain an ACD

The Shock of the 2025 Land Reform

For years, the Ivorian real estate market has operated on a basis of tolerance: the buying and selling of raw land on the simple basis of a village attestation. This document, issued by the local chieftaincy, served as the starting point for building a technical file.

But faced with the multiplication of disputes, double sales, and court backlogs, the State decided to blow the whistle on the party. The Ministry of Construction, Housing and Urban Development (MCLU) announced a strict directive to clean up the sector.

What's Changing Concretely at MCLU Counters

From this fateful deadline onward, the rules of the game for land registration are becoming drastically stricter.

The new directives:

• The decentralized services of the Ministry will no longer accept village attestations as the cornerstone for initiating a request for a Definitive Concession Decree (ACD) on new subdivisions.
• The State's objective is to force developers and landowners to settle their customary rights and obtain a global title before beginning to commercialize individual lots.
• Traceability via the Integrated Urban Land Management System (SIGFU) will become the absolute norm.

Direct Impact for Diaspora Buyers

If you reside abroad and have recently acquired land with only a village attestation as your document (or an unregularized allocation letter), you are in a zone of turbulence.

The major risks:

• Administrative blockage: The inability to file your technical dossier to obtain your ACD.
• Illiquidity of your asset: Land that can no longer be regularized becomes unsellable on the formal market, reducing your investment to nothing.
• Increased vulnerability: In the event of a dispute with the selling family, you will have no solid institutional recourse to prove your ownership.

How to Secure Land Already Purchased Under Attestation?

If you are already in possession of a village attestation, there is urgency to act before the vise tightens completely on old subdivisions.

The emergency action plan:

1. Subdivision audit: Immediately verify whether your land is located in a subdivision duly approved by ministerial decree. Without this, no procedure is possible.
2. Engagement of a surveyor-expert: Have your technical file prepared (including topographic surveys and boundary demarcation report) by a professional registered with the Order (OGECI).
3. File submission: File your ACD request as soon as possible to assert your acquired rights before strict application of the new circulars across the entire territory.

Conclusion

The end of the village attestation is not bad news: it is the long-awaited professionalization of the Ivorian land market. However, this transition requires immediate responsiveness. Buying today an untitled piece of land without the assistance of a legal expert is financial suicide. At Capital Foncier, we only support our investors on parcels whose registration process is secure, protecting you from regulatory upheavals. To understand all the steps of this securitization, read our definitive guide to Village Attestation to Land Title.