The Federal Government has moved to increase its revenue by converting over $300 billion worth of unregistered land into viable assets.
This effort in collaboration with the World Bank Group, is aimed at addressing the 90% undocumented dead capital tied up in land assets.
It was the outcome of a courtesy call on the Minister of Housing and Urban Development, Ahmed Dangiwa by a delegation of the World Bank led by its Vice President (infrastructure), Guangzhe Chen in Abuja, on Wednesday.
The Minister said over 90% of land in Nigeria remains unregistered and untitled, estimated at over $300 billion.
The ministry aims to register, document, and title all land parcels within five years, develop a National Digital Land Information System, and increase formalization of land transactions from less than 10% to over 50% in the next decade.
This collaboration will also focus on urban livability, development of a framework to address systemic barriers in the housing value chain, and enhancement of private, affordable housing investments.
“Through this initiative that we plan to implement with the World Bank, we aim to, among other objectives, register, document and title all land parcels within five years; develop and launch a National Digital Land Information System (NDLIS) and define a framework that makes it accessible to all stakeholders; increase the formalisation of land transactions from less than 10 per cent to over 50 per cent in the next 10 years; and train and deploy technically competent land registration officers nationwide,” he said.
“We have examples from states who have implemented proper land registration systems using Geographic Information Systems (GIS). Kaduna and Nasarawa are two good examples. These states have not only been able to significantly improve land registrations, but have also generated huge revenues in the process,”he observed
Dangiwa further said: “Implementation of the approved National Urban Development Policy is a key priority of the administration of Mr. President. We have to create the necessary frameworks towards an effective, impactful and sustainable implementation towards improving the management of our urban areas and improving service delivery. The World Bank’s technical capacity in the area will be highly needed.
“The third focus area is the development of a framework towards addressing the systemic barriers along the housing value chain. Doing this will help us to enhance private, affordable housing investments.”
