Lagos unveils land registry upgrading, assures of effective service delivery

In its quest to deliver efficient services to its teeming Lagos residents on land matters, the government, last week, commissioned the upgrading of land registry in Alausa, Lagos State Secretariat.

At the event, Governor Akinwunmi Ambode informed the gathering on the determination of his administration to ensure quick and efficient service delivery as far as land administration is concerned.

Ambode, who informed that a total of 4,602 Certificates of Occupancy (CofO), as well as 6,118 Governor’s Consent and 314 Deemed Grant Consent totaling 11, 034 land titles have been signed and issued in the state in the last two years, said several reforms have been put in place to reposition land administration for efficiency and enhance the ease of doing business.

“When this administration came on board, one of the major challenges hampering the ease of doing business was the bottleneck in land administration, which immediate steps were taken to reform the sector, especially through the deployment of cutting-edge technology to drive efficiency the Land Registry, Administration and Management System”.

While describing the new land registry as another major step towards the ideal situation in land administration and management, Governor Ambode said the essence of the reforms were basically to unleash private enterprise as land is a very vital asset with which the people could access capital and thereby increase economic activities, adding that the initiative was also aimed at improving the ease of doing business in the state.

He said: “This new registry is equipped with a Thomson Reuters suite of technology modules designed to conduct rapid inventory of actual/existing land rights, automate and manage land records and ensure integration of geographic data/survey. This solution also comes with online consummation of all levels of services rendered by the Lands Bureau.

“With this new registry, we will streamline the process of registering title and remove the bottlenecks previously associated with the process. The redesigned layout of the registry makes it more service friendly to all who have land transactions to process.

“In addition to the new registry, we have introduced the concept of the “Land Administration Campus” by bringing all agencies and Ministries involved in Land Administration to one location to further ease the process of land registration and titling. With this, the Office of the State Surveyor General will move to this quadrangle and occupy the office of the Ministry of Environment.”

The idea, according to the Governor, was to create a One–Stop shop where the Office of the State Surveyor General, Ministry of Physical Planning & Urban Development and the Lands Bureau are located within the same complex, to fast-track processing of land titles.

While pledging to continue to fine-tune the processes of land administration to meet changing times and yield positive dividends for the people, Governor Ambode vowed that his administration was determined to stamp out the issue of land grabbing from the State once and for all.

“I want to use this opportunity to restate the commitment of our administration to stamp out land grabbing. We will arrest and prosecute any identified land grabber. We assure all our investors of the safety of their property and urge you to take advantage of our Task Force on Land Grabbing if you encounter any challenges

“With the land administration reforms, entrepreneurs and individuals will now be able to register their titles faster and have access to capital. This will in turn create opportunities for jobs and also wealth creation,” Governor Ambode said.

He added that Lagos is open for business and that there was no better time to be in Lagos than now, thereby urging investors and residents to take advantage of the reforms his administration was putting in place to create prosperity for all.

Earlier, in her opening remarks, Special Adviser to the Governor on Urban Development, Mrs YetundeOnabule said the completion of the new land Registry was a significant milestone towards revolutionizing land administration in the State, and commended Governor Ambode for his vision and passion for optimal efficiency of the sector.

Highlighting the benefits of the Integrated Land Administration and Automation System (eGis Project), noted that at full delivery, all property records will be stored in an integrated database that can also be viewed as geographic data and maps.

“It implies that outstanding service delivery will be offered to applicants as every records would have been digitised and stored down on the root of Title, that will make search and other transaction processing much quicker and also discourage fraudulent activities,” she said.