The Federal Ministry of Housing and Urban Development and the World Bank Group, on Wednesday, resolved to address the 90 per cent of unregistered and untitled land in the country.
The move, according to both parties, was aimed at making the nation’s vast land assets more economically viable and unlocking the over $300bn in dead capital tied up in such undocumented land.
These were 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.
One of the areas of collaboration is the National Land Registration and Titling Programme in partnership with the state governments.
Addressing the visiting team, Dangiwa said that with the initiative, the government would, among others register, document and title all land parcels within five years.
He said, “This is very important to our government as over 90 per cent of land in our country is unregistered and untitled. Experts estimate a dead capital of over $300bn. Through this initiative that we plan to implement with the World Bank, we aim to, amongst other objectives, register, document, and title all land parcels within five years.
“Also, we plan to develop and launch a National Digital Land Information System and define a framework that makes it accessible to all stakeholders; increase the formalization 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.”
The minister added that land registration and titling will open up sources of revenue for the states that can boost their income through ground rent, Certificates of Occupancy, and taxes accruing from increased investments in real estate.
He further said that such funds can be used to provide urban services in the states, which can help minimise the effect of climate change across cities in Nigeria.
“We have examples from states that 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 said.
Speaking earlier, the World Bank Vice President of Infrastructure, Guangzhe Chen, said the purpose of the visit was to identify areas of common interests that they can prioritise in their collaboration with the ministry.
He disclosed that the bank is open to supporting Nigeria on land administration, affordable housing, sustainable financing mechanisms, addressing the impact of climate change on the urban sector, and engaging in urban land management towards the attainment of livable cities, digitization, among others.
“We have developed some models and worked with some countries in West and Central Africa on urban Livability and resilience, and these models can be reviewed and replicated in Nigeria,” he said.
He added that the World Bank is open to providing financing and technical support to the ministry to help the government achieve its housing and urban agenda.