PROPERTY NEWS

The Ogun State Government is targeting not less than N10bn annual revenue from a new land acquisition and revenue collection process.

Introduced by the state‘s Bureau of Land and Survey, the land revenue consultants‘ scheme has also won the support of the Ogun State Economic Advisory Council.

The new scheme, known as Accelerated Land Title Recertification Project, is aimed at democratising land title documentation in the state and boosting its internally-generated revenue profile.

A statement by the state Bureau of Land and Survey on Friday, said the EAC was impressed with the presentation made by the land revenue consultants and had given its approval-in-principal to the new scheme, which was described as a noble idea that would change the face of land management in the state.

Quoting government sources, BLS said the initiative was praised by the EAC, which believed it would help the bureau to fast-track the processing and issuance of land title documents such as the new Geographic Information System-based Certificate of Occupancy, Governor‘s Consent, Deeds of Assignment and leases/sub-leases.

Recently, the Director-General of the BLS, Mr. Gbenga Ogunnoiki, had said the land revenue consultants would work at the grassroots in the 20 local government areas, community development areas and community development centres of the state to ensure that title documents of every landed asset such as C of O, Governor‘s Consent, Deed of Assignment and other relevant documents are captured and stored in the GIS laboratory of the Bureau of Lands and Survey.

He said the consultants would be expected to adopt a kind of door-to-door approach at the local government level, such that they would move from place-to-place to help people secure titles to their lands.

Ogunnoiki had said that the land revenue consultants would earn more money for Ogun State, to enable it to finance more development projects.

With this new project, the state government has made it easy for land owners by taking land title documentation to the grassroots, as well as simplifying the perfection of title documents.

The state government last year began the process of phasing out all manual C of Os currently in use in the state.

By the end of June this year, C of O that is not GIS-based and other documents will cease to be acceptable land title documents, according to the bureau.

The BLS had explained that the manual C of O was being replaced because it was prone to forgery, aging, and was not compatible with the GIS technology that the state had deployed to aid urban planning and efficient delivery of other social services.