Ahmed Danghiwa, the Minister of Housing and Urban Development, states that the National Land Commission is being established nationwide.

He made this revelation at the “Improving Land-Based Revenue of the Federating Units in Nigeria through Efficient and Effective Land Administration” Conference of Directors of Lands in the Federal and State Ministries, Departments, and Agencies held in Lagos State on Wednesday, 15 November 2023.

“At this point, the Land Use Act was passed in 1978, but no auxiliary organization was established to offer the essential framework, rules, and regulations for putting it into practice,” he stated. We are attempting to create a National Land Commission to close this loophole and provide a new nationwide framework for efficient land management.

“This will enhance land titling and raise Nigeria’s position on the World Bank’s Ease of Doing Business index, where we are now ranked 186th out of 190 nations regarding property registration.

“When we met with Prof. Peter Adeniyi, Chairman of the Presidential Technical Committee on Land Reforms, last week, we decided to include the substantial work the committee has done over the past 14 years in our land reform strategy. Experience has shown, as the well-known land reform expert put it, that a country can only advance by implementing land reform. Additionally, it will increase the amount of money that the federal government and the states may make from land.

The Minister lamented the current land management situation in the nation, pointing out that problems from decades ago still plague the business.

He went on, “This includes complex land tenure systems, insufficient land information systems, laborious and time-consuming land registration procedures that add to systemic delays and corruption; the absence of an efficient and transparent registration process that deters investment and impedes economic development; insufficient urban planning that results in informal settlements; traffic and improper land use; and inadequate legal and regulatory frameworks that produce legal ambiguities, making it challenging for people and enterprises to navigate the land administration system confidently. We are all responsible for solving these issues. Nobody is going to do it for us.

“I must admit that the Conference and the Directors are not equipped to handle all these issues. The most important ones, like the Land Use Act 1978, require national legislation and government policy changes.

“That being said, there’s a lot of room for creativity to circumvent some of these obstacles. Notwithstanding the restrictions of the Land Use Act, we have observed in states like Kaduna and Kano that creative leaders have managed to enact reforms that have made land administration easier by bringing efficiency to land titling and property registration. These states are worthy of our praise.

The Minister pointed out that the nationwide adoption of the Model Mortgage Foreclosure Law was the second relevant reform already initiated.

He continued, “As part of His Excellency President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s Renewed Hope Agenda, the Model Mortgage Foreclosure Law is a housing industry stakeholder initiative focused on creating an environment that is conducive to real estate investment and the expansion of mortgages in a state. “

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“It offers up-to-date guidelines for the formation, filing, and enforcement of mortgages in Nigeria and related remedies, including foreclosure and mortgage enforcement on real estate.

Four states, Lagos, Kaduna, Ekiti, and Nasarawa, have passed the Model Mortgage Foreclosure Law. We want it passed in every state to guarantee the protection of investments in the housing and mortgage sectors.