Ground rents, titles add N1.42 billion to Borno IGR

The Borno State Geographic Information Service (BOGIS) has increased its internally generated revenue (IGR) from ground rents and land titles to N1.42 billion.

The agency said the IGR rose from N14.6 million in 2017 to N1.42 billion last year after it overcame challenges of compliance to the laws of land administration.

BOGIS Executive Secretary, Adam Bababe, said: “With the agency’s sensitisation of the public, the title landholders are fully complying in paying their ground rents,” he said.

On the challenges of land administration, he said: “Life is all about challenges. And without challenges, we can’t say there is life.”

He added that before the establishment of the agency, there was rot in the land administration system, which made it impossible to post better income.

Bababe attributed the multiple title landholdings to the malfunctioning of land administration for several decades.

According to him, the triangular decay comprises an unscrupulous staff of agency and the public’s ignorance of ownership of land titles.

He noted that the most dangerous one is the connivance of land vendors and criminals with the ward heads.

He, therefore, warned that the criminal elements and vendors conniving to dupe the ignorant general public will be punished.

“This is why the agency moved to correct the land administration first, before cleansing the system,” he said.

He added that the people had to be convinced; despite COVID-19 and the economic meltdown, to pay their ground rents and other titles.

He said that the agency has complied with international best practices and processes in land administration.