FG partners with World Bank on urban resilience, land administration

The federal government and the World Bank Group have resolved to work together towards addressing the 90 per cent of land in Nigeria that is unregistered and untitled, aimed at making the country’s vast land assets more economically viable and unlocking over $300 billion in dead capital tied up in such undocumented land.

Minister of Housing and Urban Development, Ahmed Dangiwa, stated this when a delegation of the World Bank, led by its Vice President (Infrastructure), Guangzhe Chen, paid a courtesy visit in Abuja on Wednesday.

“One of the areas of the collaboration is the National Land Registration and Titling Programme in partnership with the state governments. This is very important to our government as our land is unregistered and untitled. However, 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,” he added.

The Housing Minister further reiterated that they want to increase the formalisation 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 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.”

“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.”

Similarly, the Housing Minister said these states have not only been able to significantly improve land registrations but have also generated huge revenues in the process.

He said, “We are going to address the issue of Urban Livability, which is another area of common interest.

“However, the implementation of the approved National Urban Development Policy is a key priority of the administration of Mr. President. We have to create the necessary frameworks towards an effective, impactful, and sustainable implementation towards improving the management of our urban areas and improving service delivery.”

The minister recalled the recent Livability Workshop held with Commissioners of states with the largest concentration of urban areas, noting that the recommendations from the engagement are already being developed into an Actionable Plan in collaboration with the World Bank team.

Citing the recent flooding in Maiduguri, which left more than 200,000 people displaced, Dangiwa said the need to invest in urban resilience has become more evident in recent times, following rapid climate change and the susceptibility of many Nigerian urban centres to its impact.

Earlier, the World Bank Vice President of Infrastructure, Chen, said the purpose of the visit was to identify areas of common interest where they can collaborate with the Ministry, adding that the Bank will support Nigeria on land administration, affordable housing, sustainable financing mechanisms, and addressing the impact of climate change on the urban sector.

“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.

Also, Country Director, World Bank, Ndiame Diop, gave the assurance that the priorities outlined will be looked at by both teams, fine-tuned, and developed into comprehensive programmes to drive the nation’s housing and urban agenda, including improving the mortgage ecosystem, implementing a structured land titling system, and providing urban planning technical support to help vulnerable cities in Nigeria mitigate challenges of flood and rising heat levels.

Diop commended the Minister for affordable housing delivery and noted it is good to see that there is a functional system in the form of the Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria, which can be supported for enhanced capacity. The issue of land registration, which he finds worrisome, is one area that requires urgent attention.

The Country Director also expressed his happiness that the Minister is already discussing with state governments on the matter, which he described as a key aspect towards achieving it, saying that states have to adopt the improved systems.

Contributing, the Permanent Secretary, Dr. Marcus Ogunbiyi, solicited support from the World Bank in the area of capacity building, saying it is needed for the incoming new staff of the Ministry, given that the experienced and old staff were retiring from the service and needed replacement with capable hands.