Over 90% Nigerian land not registered, says Housing minister

Over 90% Nigerian land not registered, says Housing minister

The Minister of Housing and Urban Development, Ahmed Dangiwa, has said over 90 per cent of land in Nigeria remains unregistered.

He said this has resulted in over 300 billion dollars loss due to longstanding land registration challenges.

Dangiwa said this at the National Land Registration and Documentation Programme (NLRDP), a national workshop organised by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Development in Abuja.

The minister recalled that the processes have been conducted under a non-compulsory sporadic system since the inception of formal land registration in Nigeria in 1883.

“This process was slow, cumbersome, opaque and expensive for the average landowner.

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“It is not surprising that less than 10 per cent of the entire land in the country was registered in 140 years,” he said.

According to him, this has made it impossible for landowners to leverage their assets for economic purposes.

“Nigeria has faced longstanding challenges in land governance, including lack of a systematic, credible, and uncontested framework to identify property ownership, interests, and locations.

“The cumbersome and inefficient property registration process has resulted in less than 10 per cent of land in Nigeria being registered under the current sporadic system.

“Other challenges include the absence of authoritative data to support effective land administration, limited access to available land records, the existence of the Land Use Act of 1978 (now Cap 2004).

“This was without the necessary regulations to facilitate its implementation,” Dangiwa said.

The minister decried the absence of a national institution to advise the Council of State, which was empowered to make regulations for the Act.

Over 90% Nigerian land not registered, says Housing minister