Nasarawa state Governor Umaru Tanko Al-Makura’s plan to develop the state is shaping up, with Mararaba emerging as a prime business district under the new land reforms.
The project, known as Nasarawa Geographic Information System (NAGIS), seeks to regularise and computerise all the state land matters with a view to helping the state provide good roads, water, drainage, grazing routes among others in its towns and cities.
Mr. Sonny Agassi, a Nigerian-Canadian serving as head of the reform programme, said that NAGIS will be a major revenue earner for the state, capable of raking in more than N5b monthly from a land size of about 27,000 square km.
He said NAGIS, which he refers to as “the baby of my boss, the governor,” was initiated following its success story in the FCT where it is raking in about N1.5b monthly from ground rents and other land charges, from a land size of about 8,000 square km.
“This is His Excellency’s vision, to replicate Abuja in Nasarawa, and turn around the state as a twin city to Abuja with livable features. We want to create the Maitamas, the Asokoros, and Wuse IIs in Nasarawa, to take Nasarawa close to the 21st Century.
“Our land interlocks with Abuja, at Mararaba in Karu, yet there is no advantage to us other than that much of the working population in Abuja has found a home in Nasarawa. This makes us look like a dormitory.
“His Excellency’s vision is to turn things around, take advantage of the proximity we enjoy with Abuja, and make the area an ambitious and dependable revenue source, to remove our reliance on the federally-generated oil revenue. That is the brain behind the introduction of the reform programme, and by extension, the initiation of the NAGIS project,” Agassi, who is also the state Commissioner for Lands, Survey and Town Planning, said.
However, he said the government is not just looking at income that will accrue to the public purse through this urbanisation process which will last up to 24 months. Government will have to, first, build confidence in property owners through the provision of a 21st-Century habitat with all social infrastructures to compete with, and serve as a twin city to Abuja.
The project which began nine months ago is centred at Mararaba with a view to turning the area around as business district of the state. Work on the project situated along Keffi-Abuja Road, is nearing completion and it is expected to prop-up the state’s revenue base.
The project, which is being handled by a consortium of firms under Siraj Engineering Consultants, has three components namely Digital Area Mapping (DAM), being handled by Aeroprecisa Limited; Nasarawa Geographic Information Services, undertaken by GIS Transport; and the planning of cadastral districts, being handled by Pragmatic Solutions Consult Nigeria, Envicons, and National Environmental Design Associates. This is meant to engender a detailed planning and development control and will prevent the growth of slums in the state.
The NAGIS project was first awarded to JM Technologies, a firm contracted by the previous government of Aliyu Akwe Doma. The firm was awarded the contract worth about N500m to provide digital aerial mapping which it could not complete two years later.
The present administration unbundled the project, and re-awarded it to Siraj, at the cost of N2.7b to include two more components.
Aeroprecisa Limited, which is providing aerial images, started in May to capture images which are currently being processed for the planned computerisation of the land in use.
GIS Transport, which is providing geographic information services, has seen the state Ministry of Lands, Survey and Town Planning kitted with state-of-the-art facilities. It is now saddled with the responsibility of capturing all land data including titles at the ministry.
The firm has also fetched all mutilated land documents including the Intelligent Sheet from where all of Nasarawa’s land use can be traced, and reproduced them into 21st Century documents with computer backups.
This component has also seen the introduction of a new Certificate of Occupancy (C of O), for an ongoing recertification which has phased out the old and bogus certification process which was beneficial only to the privileged few.
At the time Al-Makura took over, only about 600 Cs of O had been issued to privileged personalities in 16 years of the state’s existence. But that is being reversed now. With this project which has seen hundreds with their land titles few months of the introduction of the reforms.
The third component which is the creation of cadastral districts is in its fourth month of implementation. It is being executed by a team of Nigeria’s leading town planners.
Alhaji Ibrahim Usman Jibril, the NAGIS Project Manager, who is also the Senior Special Assistant to the governor, said an inception report on the project has already been produced. According to him, its design shows that about 200 square metres of land is available for the planning which will create 10,000 plots out of six districts at the border with Abuja.
The cadastral districts planning entails the adoption of the General Land Use Budget promoted by UN-Habitat, with an extension to give specifics on arterial roads to connect main roads, residential areas, neighbourhood shopping centres and mini-shopping centres as well as schools and other plans.
The provision of the centre is being handled by A&K Construction Limited as part of the about US$10,625,000.00 (N2.7b) NAGIS project.
A&K Construction has so far completed work on the centre, just as stringing of wires to link the server room and computer units, has also been completed. Furnishing will be the next stage, according to Engr. Khaled Chamoun, the Project Manager, who was part of the team led by Sonny Agassi, to conduct the Minister and his entourage round.
Engr. Khaled, who was accompanied by George Boumaroun, Managing Director of the construction firm, said work started four months ago on an abandoned and old cinema complex. “In four months, we could change all the aspects of the old building and provided what now stands as an architectural masterpiece,” he said.
The team said the quality of the project is remarkable.
Project manager of NAGIS, Jibril said the centre is a hub that will have all of the computers at the state Ministry of Lands, Survey and Town Planning, in Lafia seen right there in Mararaba when the project picks up in a short while to come.
He said the centre will stream revenue collection all over the state, as it will also make for development planning. He explained that “NAGIS, through the aerial images to be recorded in our computers, will be able to locate every single property in the state, every single location or area in the state with the push on the button, to view what is on ground in those places.
“For instance, since resources are scarce, planning is very important for government to locate where there are critical needs. The number of property you have on ground in a particular place suggests its population strength, and by extension, the critical needs of the people.
“Such places will require at least schools, health facilities, markets, roads and so on, depending on the population, as well as resources at the disposal of the government. NAGIS can locate such places to enable planning and development to be realisable, Alhaji Jibril said.
