Title: THE STATUS OF LAND RECORDS SYSTEM AND ITS RELEVANCE TO INFRASTRUCTURAL DEVELOPMENT IN NIGERIA
1THE STATUS OF LAND RECORDS SYSTEM AND ITS
RELEVANCE TO INFRASTRUCTURAL DEVELOPMENT IN
NIGERIA
- Paper presented by
- Surv. C. E. Oboli (fnis) Director, Cadastral
Surveys - Surv. A. O. Akpoyoware (mnis) Assistant Chief
Surveyor, - Office of the Surveyor General of the Federation
(OSGOF) - Cadastral Survey Unit Federal Ministry of
Environment Housing and Urban Development,
Mabushi, Abuja-Nigeria - At the 2nd Annual African Conference and
Exhibition on Geospatial Information Technology
and Applications Map Africa 2007 - Cape Town South Africa.
2Outline of Presentation
- Introduction
- The Colonial system of Land Administration
- The Present system- after the introduction of the
Land Use Decree - Developments in the management of Land
Administration Records - Impact of the Current Status of Land records on
Land management, Infrastructure and Governance - The Future-the way forward
- Problems of new developments in Land Reform
- Recommendations
- Conclusions
3Introduction
- Land records required basically for
- publicity for a private purchaser of land
- the state know land available for taxation
- Spatial and attribute data facilitate planning,
resource control and infrastructural development
multisectorally - A review of land records and large scale maps
from colonial era to the present day - Land Registration - a system for secure,
efficient transfers and protection of ownership
rights
4Introduction
Infrastructures are the essential elements of a
country which provide the framework to support
public works eg utility services, CADGIS ongoing
FHMEHUD project to produce Cadastral spatial data
Health Facility
Power Energy
Transportation
Urban Planning
Registry FELIS
Schools
Water
CADGIS provides the foundation for infrastructure
development
5Introduction (continued)
The Federal Republic with area of 923,768km2 has
large scale maps coverage of less than 3 Lack of
information on land affects the planning and
citing of infrastructures
6Introduction (continued)
- Land records Justification
- Facilitates land transactions
- Security for the owner and others with land
rights, - Stimulates investment and development
- Reduces disputes and litigations
- Engenders better land use management
- Public control and land policy measures also
require land records.
7Status Summary-Colonial system of Land
Administration
- Manual record keeping in use by all land related
sectors in Nigeria was maintained by keeping
registers and files.
8Status Summary-Colonial system of Land
Administration
- Land registration began with the arrival of the
Europeans - influenced by the land tenure system. -
- Before Land Use Act of 1978 land tenure
- - Freehold system in the South
- -in the north the land was held in trust by the
traditional leader and given out by leasehold
9Progress-The Present after introduction of Land
Use Decree
- The Land Use Decree (Act) of March 29, 1978
Chapter 202 of the Laws of the Federation of
Nigeria, has divested land ownership from
individuals to the Federal and State Governments. - Result
- -increased demand for title registration
- - need for more surveys and documentation
- - land registration limited to urban areas
10Progress-The Present after introduction of Land
Use Decree
- Land Registries document certain interests in
land, spatial extent, encumbrances and ownership
rights and data - Analogue land record system led to lack of
integrity and transparency as well as trust in
all transactions on land in many parts of the
country - Registration confers security of tenure to the
landowner and aids proper adjudication. - Land registration and management is spread
between several government departments like many
countries
11Developments in Land record management
- The immediate past President of the Federal
Republic of Nigeria shortly after assuming office
in 1999, directed the computerisation of all
Federal Government lands and records. - Directives include
Compilation of personal data of applicants
Storage and retrieval of cadastral information
Security and control of access to confidential
land information
12Developments in Land record management
- The efforts at improving the Cadastre in the
country can be seen in Lagos, Kano and Enugu
states as well as Abuja, FCT. Cross River state
also embarked on data conversion and
computerisation
13Developments in Land record management
- Lagos State launched the Electronic Document
Management systems (EDMS) for improved services
land registry-Most developed in the country - Abuja Geographic Information system (AGIS) set up
in 2004 as a S.D.I. for Abuja, FCT blazed the
trail in electronic filing system - Ogun state in effort to overhaul the system
state governor Chief Gbenga Daniels visited Her
Majestys Land Registry for consultation on the
application of modern technology to land
administration and registration systems.
14Developments in Land record management
- Office of the Surveyor General of the Federation
(OSGOF) and the Cadastral Unit of the Federal
Ministry of Environment, Housing and Urban
Development proposed to carry out a National
Cadastral and Township Mapping programme - OSGOF has an on-going exercise to revise the
150,000 Topographic Mapping series with a total
of 1370 map sheets when completed this will be
used to update the 1100,000 series
15Impact of Land Records on Land management,
Infrastructure and Governance
- Social and economic growth and stability of any
nation depends on the ability of government to
manage its land resources for the benefits of its
citizenry. - Lack of suitable large scale maps creates
difficulty in design and implementation of
infrastructures - A lot of energy, time and resources is spent on
land disputes-lack of available large scale maps
16Impact of Land Records on Land management,
Infrastructure and Governance
- Activities on land with inadequate documentation
led to poor land utilization and in some cases
distortion of master plan in Abuja FCT resulting
in demolition in suburbs and city centre. - Honourable Minister of Environment Housing and
Urban Development, Arc. Halimat T. Alao
attributed current poverty situation in the
country partly to the low level of land rights
infrastructure
Government building worth 7,936,507(USD)
R55555555(ZAR)
17Impact of Land Records on Land management,
Infrastructure and Governance
- Infrastructural development in the country has
been piecemeal Geo data and GIS can be used - Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN) presently
supplies about 3,000 megawatts as opposed to
estimated requirement of 10,000 megawatts, to
strategise for improved supply PHCN plans a GIS
pilot project with a view to improve energy
efficiency
Critical areas of this administrations 7-point
Agenda
18Impact of Land Records on Land management,
Infrastructure and Governance
- Land Use Act of 1978 disregarded the importance
of the Surveyor and survey plans and the
Registered Surveyor in Land matters. - The previous Military administration used the
Land Use Act as an over-riding law on land
matters by ensuring the Act was entrenched in
the Constitution
19The Future-and the way forward
- Federal Ministry of Environment, Housing and
Urban Development has undertaken the
re-organization and computerization of the
Federal Lands Registry under the Phase I of the
Federal Land Information System (FELIS project) - Presently, FELIS has about 10,000 entries where
over 10,000,000 are expected - FELIS database to be linked with the Zonal
offices of the Ministry across the Country. FELIS
capable of producing 500 C. of O. daily if survey
is available.
20The Future-and the way forward
- Early in year 2006 the Ministry signed a
Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Her
Majestys Land Registry (HMLR) under which the
British government will provide technical and
financial support for improvement of land
administration in Nigeria - National Technical Development Forum (NTDF)
approved by the National Council on Housing and
Urban Development, created in response to the
need to establish national standards of land
administration - African Geodetic Reference Frame (AFREF), will
unify many national co-ordinate reference frames
of Africa into a single frame based on the format
of International Terrestrial Reference System
(ITRS).
21The Future-and the way forward
- Cadastral Survey Unit has an on-going CADGIS
project with consultant Sivan Design to provide
spatial input required for FELIS, eventually
leading to compulsory registration and
e-Certificate of Occupancy
22The Future-and the way forward
- 7-point agenda initiated to reform economic
development includes land reforms to ensure
equitable use of nations land assets to be
exploited through records - The Cadastral and Township mapping program need
to be given the serious attention they deserve to
throw up more data at large scale on the unmapped
97 of Nigerias 924,768 km2 land area, by
adequate financing of this vital infrastructure
Wealth Creation
Food Security
Land Reforms
Power and Energy
Transport
Education
Security
23Problems of new developments in Land Reform
- - Illiteracy level
- - Computer Competency level
- -Non performing Infrastructure
- Epileptic Power supply
- Its effect on hardware
- Lack of local maintenance outfit
- Effects on other sectors-comparison with
communication (GSM overstressed network) - Need to enforce guidelines for optimal performance
24Recommendations
- The contracts for the computerization of land
records and registries should be guided with
specifications. - States in the country need to embark upon
computerisation of land records, as well as
capacity building for planning and infrastructure
development - Infrastructures should be designed based on
existing updated/current geodata
25Recommendations
- Need for regular enlightenment campaign for the
public on the importance of land records - Surveyors and geodesists should be involved in
the computerization of land records in view of
the need to address problems of reference
framework and zones transformation - The effect of re-certification would provide
documents that confer security for land titling
this would be helpful to people taking mortgages,
and increase activity in real estate development
because the banks would make finance available
and ultimately improve housing delivery
26Conclusions
- Fundamental knowledge on land in a country is
stored in the existing land records. - Large scale maps, plans, land records are
important and needed for citing of
infrastructure - Low level of cadastral mapping in Nigeria and
mostly available in analogue format. - Manpower training and development needs to be
embarked upon within organisations acquiring and
maintaining land records. - Surveyor input in production of land records
cannot be overemphasised in the area of
harmonisation of survey plans and preparation of
legal documents for titling. - The proper documentation of land records and
transactions has a direct impact on service
delivery in such sectors as health, food
security, education, transportation and the
environment.
27References
- 1 Larsson, Gerhard (1991) Land registration and
cadastral systems Tools for land information and
management, Longman Group UK - 2 Ayeni, Winston (2007) Infrastructure
Information System Paper presented at Survey
Coordination Conference and Advisory Board on
Survey Training, Abuja, Nigeria - 3 Oboli, C. E. Akpoyoware, A. O. (2005) Land
registration reforms in Nigeria-Past, Present
Future The Surveyors Perspective Presented at
the Nigerian Institution of Surveyors AGM Kano,
Nigeria May 4th 6th 2005 - 4 Arnot, B Meadows, J (2006) Innovations and
Land Administration Process- Reforming the Land
Registration Process in Nigeria-Promoting Land
Administration and Good Governance 5th FIG
Regional Conference, Accra, Ghana, March 8-11,
2006 - 5 www.independentngonline.com Adedeji,
Christopher (2007) Daily Independent online FG
Attributes Poverty level to Infrastructure
deficiency 13th Sept, 2007 accessed 27th
September, 2007
28References
- 6 www.fugro.com Nigerian Airborne Survey GIM
International Magazine for Geomatics (2007)
October 2007, Volume21, Issue 10 - 7 Federal Government Tender Magazine(2007)
Geographical Information System pilot scheme for
some Business units September 17-30, 2007 - 8 Oboli, C. E. (2007) Rural and Urban
Development in Nigeria Issues, Problems and
Options-The Surveyors Perspective Paper Presented
at the Nigerian Institution of Surveyors AGM Jos
(Tin city),Plateau state, Nigeria July 3rd -6th
2007 - 9 Njepuome, A. P. C. (2007) African Geodetic
Reference Frame (AFREF) Opening remarks at
Stakeholders Forum Rock View, Hotel Abuja,
Nigeria. 26th September, 2007 - 10 Oboli, C. E. Nwilo, P. C. (2006) The
Status of Cadastre and Land Management in Nigeria
Presented at Land Information Systems Symposium
held at UNECA, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia from 4th-8th
December, 2006
29Thank you for your attention