The Federal Government is making frantic efforts to unlock the land use obstacles in the country, a move it says will inject over $300 billion into the nation’s economy when consummated.
The Minister, Federal Ministry of Housing and Urban Development, Ahmed Dangiwa, who disclosed this at the opening ceremony of the 28th Conference of Directors of Lands in the federal, state ministries, departments and agencies, in Lagos said the government was also going to review some of the revenues the states were generating on land and ensure that every state and all the federating units benefited from it. In addition, the government, he explained, is working to ensure ease access to land nationwide.
With the theme “Improving Land-Based Revenue of the Federating Units in Nigeria through Efficient and Effective Land Administration”, Dangiwa noted the land use act that had been established since 1978 needed to be looked into adding the Act could not work because there was no implementing agency that would possibly implement it.
“That’s why we are at the process of establishing the national land use commission and the Lagos state government has already done a lot of reforms that had already adopted the modern mortgage that has gone ahead to digitalize their own districts, they have already gone ahead to ensure that they are issuing C of O currently,” he said.
Dangiwa expressed dissatisfaction over the current state of land administration in the country adding that the same issues that were there decades ago are still there till today. These, he noted to include inadequate land information systems, complex land tenure systems, cumbersome and time-consuming land registration processes that contribute to delays and corruption in the system; the lack of a streamlined and transparent registration process that discourages investment and hinders economic development.
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Others are inadequate urban planning which lead to informal settlements; congestion, and improper land use, inadequate legal and regulatory frameworks which results in legal uncertainties, making it difficult for individuals and businesses to navigate the land administration system with confidence, noting these are problems that must be fixed.
The minister however admitted that some of these problems were beyond the capacity of the conference and Directors to resolve. According to him, the most fundamental ones such as the Land Use Act 1978 require legislative amendments and national government policy interventions adding there is a lot of room for innovation to evade the limitations posed by some of these barriers.
Dangiwa observed that in states like Kaduna and Kano leaders had found ways to implement reforms that had helped them ease land administration by introducing efficiencies in land titling and property registration despite the limitations of the Land Use Act.
While commending these states for their innovative efforts, the minister charged all participants for the 2023 conference do likewise. “We must think out of the box, innovate, and learn to do things differently”, Dangiwa stated adding that will help in making progress and changing the narrative going forward.
He informed that President Bola Tinubu was set to tackle the systemic challenges that had hindered effective land administration. According to the Minister, the President has a bold vision for the sector and is committed to backing it up with the necessary political will to break all barriers to unlock the revenue earning potential of land.
This effort, he said, will improve land titling and boost Nigeria’s ranking on the World Bank Ease of Doing Business where it currently rank 186th out of 190 countries on the World Bank Ease of Doing Business index in terms of ease of registering properties