The Minister of State I for Power, Works and Housing, Mr Mustapha Baba Shehuri has stated that government, through its National Housing Programme (NHP) is producing 2,736 housing units as a way of reducing the huge housing deficit estimated at 18 million units.
While declaring open the 25th Conference of Directors/Heads of Lands in the Federal and State Ministries, Departments and Agencies on Tuesday in Abuja, the minister revealed that while states provide compensation-free developable lands with off-site infrastructure, the federal government is constructing the houses using contractors and artisans in the various states.
Viewpoint Housing News reports that during electioneering in 2015, President Muhammadu Buhari’s APC promised to produce one million houses yearly if voted into power.
While counting the achievements of government, the minister said his ministry has successfully processed over 150 secondary transactions on federal government lands nationwide, adding that the ministry is working toward titling over 2,000 lands which will empower holders to raise funds to establish new and grow existing businesses.
He said the ministry is working hard to strengthen the Federal Land Registry for online transactions in line with global best practices.
Shehuri charged the conference delegates: “Let me also remind you as key stakeholders that the implementation of the International Public Sector Accounting Standards (IPSAS) has commenced in Nigeria.
“The new accounting reporting standard approved by the Federal Executive Council in 2010 with 1st Jan., 2016 as the commencement date is targeted at full and transparent disclosure of government financial records which is consistent with anti-corruption posture of the Buhari administration.
“It is predicated on the incorporation of the net value of public assets in the financial statements of the federal, state and local governments.
“As the repository and managers of these public assets, you have major professional role to play in their inventorization and valuation.
“The 6th meeting of the National Council on Lands, Housing and Urban Development (NCLHUD) has recognised this and has taken some far reaching decisions in facilitating smooth implementation nationwide.
“You need on return to your various states, begin to put in place strategies for actualizing this vision in collaboration with the office of Accountant General of your state.”
The minister maintained that good land governance is an imperative for better and more prosperous future that is devoid of rancour and conflicts over land.
According to the him, “…the present not quite impressive level of infrastructural and economic development of our country, good land governance and accruable benefits of improved land-based revenue generation, efficient land administration and effective deployment of appropriate management strategies become imperative.
“Since all productive activities of man take place on land whose location and size is fixed, a nation like ours with a fast growing population would require lots of land parcels for agriculture, industrialisation, housing, road and other infrastructural developmental purposes of the people.
“In this respect, we must be prudent and strategic in the choices we make regarding the utilisation, deployment and management of land amongst competing needs.”
He said government has captured land management in the vision and and objectives of the Economic Recovery and Growth Plan (ERGP).
In his goodwill message, the President of Nigerian Institution of Estate Surveyors and Valuers (NIESV), Mr Rowland Abonta lamented that the law regulating the administration and use of land, enacted since 1978 has not been amended, even in the face of continuous dynamic changes in Nigeria’s economic development.
He condemned the appointment of non estate surveyors and valuers as Directors of Lands and Deeds Registrars in some states against all extant laws and approved scheme of service in Nigeria.
Mr Godwin Tyoachimin, who is Deputy Director (Lands), Federal Ministry of Power, Works and Housing described land administration in Nigeria as opaque, saying where one buys a property for N2 million and spends N400,000 on registration negates good land governance, equity and accountability.
The two-day event organised by the Federal Ministry of Power, Works and Housing has the theme Effective Land Governance for National Economic Growth and Development.
Participants who came from nearly all the states of Nigeria will on Wednesday produce a communique.
The conference which serves as a peer review platform for cross-fertilisation of ideas and development of requisite skills for effective management of public lands was last held in Ilorin, Kwara State in 2008.
