The Federal Ministry of Housing and City Improvement has introduced its dedication to addressing the difficulty of unregistered and untitled land in Nigeria, which at the moment accounts for 90 per cent of the nation’s landmass.
The Director Info and Public Relations, Salisu Haiba, disclosed this in an announcement on Wednesday.
The ministry, in partnership with the World Financial institution Group, goals to unlock over $300bn in useless capital tied to untitled land, by launching a Nationwide Land Registration and Titling Programme.
This initiative was disclosed following a courtesy go to by the World Financial institution delegation, led by Vice President of Infrastructure, Guangzhou Chen, to the Minister of Housing and City Improvement, Ahmed Dangiwa, on Wednesday.
The programme is anticipated to extend the formalization of land transactions.
“This is essential to our authorities as over 90 per cent of land in our nation is unregistered and untitled. Specialists estimate a useless capital of over $300bn,” mentioned Dangiwa.
He additional added that the ministry, in collaboration with the World Financial institution and state governments, plans to register and title all land parcels inside 5 years and enhance the speed of titled land from lower than 10 per cent to over 50 per cent within the subsequent decade.
One of many vital parts of the programme is the event of a Nationwide Digital Land Info System.
Dangiwa defined that this technique will probably be accessible to all stakeholders and will probably be key in boosting states’ income by means of floor lease, Certificates of Occupancy, and taxes.
“We’ve examples from states who’ve carried out correct land registration methods utilizing Geographic Info Methods. Kaduna and Nasarawa are two good examples. These states haven’t solely been capable of considerably enhance land registrations however have additionally generated big revenues within the course of,” he mentioned.
The minister additionally highlighted the potential city resilience advantages of the initiative, noting that revenues generated from correct land registration might assist mitigate the consequences of local weather change, significantly in susceptible cities like Maiduguri, the place latest flooding displaced greater than 200,000 folks.
The World Financial institution’s Vice President of Infrastructure Guangzhe Chen, expressed the Financial institution’s help for the initiative, emphasising the significance of sustainable financing mechanisms and concrete resilience in Nigeria.
“We’ve developed some fashions and labored with some international locations in West and Central Africa on city livability and resilience, and these fashions may be reviewed and replicated in Nigeria,” Chen mentioned.
The World Financial institution delegation additionally included the Financial institution’s Nation Director, Ndiame Diop, who pledged to help Nigeria’s efforts in enhancing land titling, inexpensive housing, and concrete planning.
“The problem of land registration, which I discover worrisome, is one space that requires pressing consideration. Having 90 per cent of land unregistered may be an impediment to improvement within the sector,” Diop mentioned.
Diop additional assured that each groups would fine-tune the outlined priorities into complete programmes to drive the nation’s housing and concrete agenda, together with enhancing the mortgage ecosystem and providing city planning technical help.
The Everlasting Secretary of the Ministry, Dr Marcus Ogunbiyi, closed the session by in search of the World Financial institution’s help in constructing the capability of recent ministry workers, as many skilled personnel had been retiring.