Govt proposes land administration reform to boost socio-economic devt

• FMBN refunds N85 billion to 492,604 contributors
• As developer urges land banking for future projects

After an initial effort by past administrations that eventually turned out to be a ‘false start’, a fresh policy change may be in the offing to rescue the country from the heavy clouds of uncertainty hovering over the real estate sector.

The new measures, which are being proposed, include the establishment of a national mortgage register for titles that can be verified in terms of the coordinates, incentivising and prompting the state government to make necessary administrative and operational changes.

Among the proposals are the domestication of the Model Mortgage and Foreclosure Law (MMFL) across the states of the Federation and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT); improving and standardising the Land Use Act (constitutional and legal changes) by making changes to certain areas in policy without necessarily changing the law (Land Use Act).

The move includes the creation of the National Lands Commission that integrates and harmonises all the land management efforts of the government, irrespective of the ministries, departments, and agencies that are handling it.

There are also plans for the creation of a platform for a broad national consultation process for participation and stakeholder management in the land administration process, as well as the development of a seamless land acquisition process, and the development of a more acceptable approach to payment of compensation rates, having cognisance of stakeholder concerns.

In the new plan, there will be the establishment of a comprehensive system land registration and documentation system to record land transactions and ownership, digitalisation and real-time access to land nationwide, while addressing the complexities of customary land rights, recognising and formalising them where appropriate.

The Chairman, Land Reform Task Team, Dr Ugochukwu Chime, who disclosed this at the just concluded Africa International Housing Show (AIHS), held in Abuja, said efficient land management in Nigeria is of paramount importance due to a confluence of pressing factors that impact the nation’s sustainable development and overall stability. The factors range from demographic changes to environmental challenges that necessitate a comprehensive approach to managing land resources effectively.

According to him, proper management practices can enhance land use for farming, increase crop yields, and reduce conflicts over land ownership between farmers and headers, as well as make states in the federation a destination of choice for investment and thus enhance the ease of doing business index.

Chime revealed that there are 38 land administering entities (36 States, FCT and Federal Lands); each entity is empowered to determine the policies and practices for managing land and physical development.

“There is a diagonal level of efficiency among them, from those still operating analogue mode of land information storage and retrieval to those who are going digital. Less than six per cent of the land resources are documented and registered with the various deeds registries, while less than 10 per cent of the land parcels are covered with effective and comparable cadastre origin and orientation.”

Nigeria has over $300 billion in dead capital, which is over 60 per cent of the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and various efforts to amend the Land Use Act 1978 have failed due to fears and concerns about its impact on various interests.

He stated that many laudable programmes and projects in various sectors like agriculture and housing have been severely and adversely affected or thwarted by the outdated, inefficient and opaque land administration in the country.

For Chime, the current land market lacks structure and is highly fragmented with various players trading outside government oversight and regulation which creates room for massive land disputes. “The GDP of the country and subnationals have been severely constrained and capped by the current land administration policies and practices,” he added.

MEANWHILE, the Managing Director of Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria (FMBN), Mr Shehu Osidi, said the bank delivered about 39,000 new homes, about 25,500 mortgages and over 120,000 micro-housing loans, all within a single-digit interest rate lending regime.

Under the National Housing Fund (NHF) scheme, it has registered 26,350 organisations and over 5.8 million cumulative contributors with over one million accounting for the self-employed sector.

The bank has disbursed a cumulative of N440 billion under its various loan windows to drive affordable housing finance for the Nigerian economy. To its record, the sum of N84.8 billion has been refunded to 492,604 contributors who exited the scheme in line with the provisions of the NHF Act.

With the rapidly changing landscape and growing need for affordable housing financing, FMBN’s clientele base has widened from solely primary mortgage banks to private and public real estate developers, housing cooperatives and now to individual NHF contributors for home self-construction.

The latest additions to its loan products are the home improvement and rent assistance loans, which are micro-housing loans specifically intended for but not exclusive to the non-salaried informal sector.

Osidi said the bank extended a N100 billion off-taker guarantee to the consortium of developers undertaking the Renewed Hope Cities & Estates Programme, which commenced with the groundbreaking of the 3,112 housing units Renewed Hope City in Karsana, being part of the 100,000 housing units to be built nationwide.

“We initiated constructive engagement with the Federal Ministry of Finance to secure refunds of the wrongful deductions of NHF contributions misconstrued as revenue under the 40 per cent deduction regime of revenue accruing to federal agencies, which led to the recovery of N12 billion out of the outstanding N19b into the bank’s coffers.

“We are still engaging relevant authorities until the deductions are stopped and we recover the outstanding balance of the trapped NHF funds.” He stated that the new management worked closely with the minister, who presented the proposal for the recapitalisation of the FMBN at the Federal Executive Council (FEC).

“This effort has led to the establishment of an inter-agency committee on the recapitalisation of the bank towards improving its capacity for providing adequate liquidity for the Nigerian housing finance sector and affordable housing delivery in Nigeria,” he added.

In a related development, the Chairman of the AIHS opening ceremonies, Matthew Ashimolowo, said financing the housing would require the government to implement reforms to support developers and de-risk the housing delivery process.

“There are too many ‘landmines’ in the path of developers under the present dispensation. Government at the federal and state levels must be intentional in creating the right and enabling environment for developers to ply their trade,” he said.

Ashimolowo urged government support for land banking as a veritable strategy to create, consolidate, accumulate and unlock finance for projects in the future.

He said: “With the high cost of funding in this environment, we have to be intentional, innovative and pragmatic about our financing strategy as developers. One strategy which has worked effectively for our organisation is land banking.”