Problems associated with land management have been greatly curbed. Boundary disputes have been greatly reduced. These are some of the gains of the Cross River State Geographical Information Agency since its establishment by the Governor Liyel Imoke led administration in 2011.
The agency was to ensure that every issue relating to land management is streamlined and properly managed to eliminate all problems by digitally managing every issue related to land.
Marking a huge departure from the past, one could get an electronic Certificate of Occupancy (CofO) just 21 days after application, the agency assured.
A programme of the agency which had driven the successes it so far achieved has been the Systematic Land Tilting Registration (SLTR) which ensured that every piece of land in a jurisdiction is adjudicated and mapped in a systematic manner whereby the owner and neighbours are present to agree on who owns what.
The chairman of the Presidential Technical Committee on Land Reform, Prof Peter Olufemi Adeniyi, said: “Once that is done across a jurisdiction, you will know that there will be no dispute because currently we do not know who owns what everywhere and so a dubious person can go and show somebody else land and want to sell it.”
According to Adeniyi, with the SLTR where every owner would have a valid Certificate of Occupancy would curb such problems.
The SLTR, which was introduced last year by the agency, aimed at providing land security for owners especially as the demand for land continues to grow in state which is fast becoming a hub.
The Director General of the CRGIA, Dr Clement Oshaka, said: “SLTR is fast, efficient and innovative method for having the government formally recognise landowners rights to the land they are occupying, by issuing a CofO to every landowner in a specific area. This affords the owners more security for their rights and allows the land to be used as collateral for financing.”
The success of the programme in the state had captured the interest of other states in the country who sought to emulate it to develop their own areas.
For instance, a delegation from Kogi State was in the state to understudy the project.
Leader of the Kogi team, Hajiya Ramatu Umar, commended the state government Cross River State government for the establishment of the agency which it said had recorded tangible achievements. She said what they had learnt, they would use to improve the situation in their area.
Coordinator of the SLTR project in the state, Mr Augustine Ojeka, throwing more light said the project entails capturing every inch of land in the state through field work to form part of an overall cadastral system that would have all the land parcels in the state represented properly.
“It is going to help in town planning, urban renewal, projections, and even help on issues of taxation and any other revenue issues relating to properties in the state.”
The project aims to registering every property in the state, he said.
“Thereafter they will proceed to making it possible for all who have been registered to get valid certificates of occupancy,” he said.
He said the project which is a collaboration between the CRGIA and the Growth and Employment in States 3(GEMS3) was an intervention programme.
“Being an intervention programme it is designed to be pro-poor to make sure that the poor man who has land to be able to have access to secure his land and have a C of O at very little cost.
“When we came here initially, the governor was very appreciative of the concept. Getting to know what it is about, he granted approval and released some funding for it to kickstart.
“GEMS3 is a project funded by the United Kingdom Department for International Development so they give some fund support for the project.”
On expectations from members of the public towards the exercise, he said, “The members of the public in terms of requirement to get your property registered is nothing different from the usual practise where you are expected to come up with evidence of claim for a particular property you occupy. And every document relating to that property. In this case of SLTR, we ask you for such documents. If you have them, you present them. If you don’t have them, we try to go beyond that to see how we can establish the authenticity of your claim on that property. We capture every relevant detail including your image and identification.
“It is designed to augment actually the normal system that is running in the CRGIA such that if there are subsequent transactions on that property, you can be sure that all documents generated relating to that transaction would always be tied to the ones that have already been captured right here in the system in the data base. So at any point references are necessary to draw on the database relating to any parcel of land, it would not be an issue of searching. You just go straight and get whatever history you need on that property and then it would now help in planning, decision making and any other administrative decisions that are necessary for management of such parcels of land.”
“It is not just for property that has been developed. Every piece of land in the state is supposed to be registered even if it is half an inch, so long as somebody is claiming that land. Whether it is an individual, group of individuals, communities, even government property, we also capture them. They should be part of the database for reference purposes.”
Adviser to the project, an American, Mr Stephen Calder describing how they work to get the area covered said, “Basically we work in teams and they go round every street from door to door and ask house owners to show their properties and they draw on the map and they fill our forms and verify facts of ownership.
“We take pictures of all documents and survey plans. We take all that information and then we come in here from hand drawn to computer drawn. All the details are captured. When we are complete with this there is one more important step to embark on which is the public display. Larger maps are put along with the list of the names and for thirty days we put them in public places and ask people to go check the names to ensure we got it right. If you have anything to correct or dispute let us know. After that period if no one objects, it is considered to be valid and then the property goes to CRGIA after which it is registered. After which if the people come and pay a fee, the get a Certificate of Occupancy. They don’t pay for any of the work we do. They only pay for the C-of-O.
“The difference in what we are doing is that before now it was up to the people to come and register their property and we call that sporadic registering, because it happens person by person and it is sporadic. But with this we register virtually everything. So it is a very valid exercise.
“There are two main benefits. First you are securing your land. Once the government approves of it and has it stored, it is difficult for someone to dispossess you of that land. You are secure in your land title. The other benefit is that with the C-of-O you can use your land as collateral to obtain investment capital.
“The people are receiving it well. In fact when they hear about it they come to us and say please to do theirs. They are always a few people that have distrust but by and large the response is very good especially as people get more aware.”
