Housing Ministry partners World Bank on urban resilience

By Mashe Umaru Gwamna

The Ministry of Housing and Urban Development and the World Bank Group have resolved to work together towards addressing the 90% of land in Nigeria that is unregistered and untitled.
A statement by Salisu Badamasi Haiba, Director Information and Public Relations in the Ministry said the move was aimed at making the nation’s vast land assets more economically viable and unlocking the over $300 billion in dead capital tied up in such undocumented land.
This was the outcome of a courtesy call on the Minister of Housing and Urban Development, Arc. Ahmed Musa Dangiwa by a delegation of the World Bank led by its Vice President (Infrastructure), Guangzhe Chen in Abuja, Wednesday, September 11th, 2024.
One of the areas of the collaboration is the National Land Registration and Titling Programme in partnership with the state governments. As the Minister said, “this is very important to our government as over 90% 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; develop and launch a National Digital Land Information System (NDLIS) and define a framework that makes it accessible to all stakeholders; increase the formalization of land transactions from less than 10% to over 50% in the next 10 years; and train and deploy technically competent land registration officers nationwide,” he said.
The Minister added that land registration and titling will open up sources of revenue for the states who can boost their income through ground rent, Certificates of Occupancy, and taxes accruing from increased investments in real estate.
Accordingly, 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.
Arc Dangiwa also observed “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”.