In Nigeria’s volatile economy, where capital access is paramount, a single piece of paper—the Certificate of Occupancy (C-of-O)—has become the ultimate gatekeeper, turning tangible wealth into economically dormant assets. The story of 52-year-old Ogun State poultry farmer, Ayo Ijaoye, powerfully illustrates this bureaucratic bottleneck.
Ijaoye’s thriving 13.5-acre farm, which he had painstakingly nurtured, was poised for a major expansion with a much-needed million loan from the Bank of Industry (BoI). He had cleared every hurdle—feasibility studies, audited accounts, financial statements—only to be stopped at the last step: a required bank guarantee.
Assets Locked Out of the System
To issue the guarantee, the commercial bank demanded the C-of-O for Ijaoye’s land, a document that proves ownership and grants collateral value. Ijaoye, whose land alone is estimated to be worth approximately million, was denied the million facility because he lacked the official documentation.
“My land alone is worth far more than m. But because there’s no C-of-O, the bank couldn’t issue the guarantee. Everybody is just watching their back, but it’s the small business owner that pays the price.”
This denial marked the beginning of his farm’s decline, forcing him to watch his ambitious expansion plans, including a new pen house for over 5,120 birds, collapse.
The Costly Bureaucratic Barrier
The C-of-O, meant to be a lifeline document, has become a prohibitively expensive and frustrating barrier. Ijaoye noted the absurdity of having to spend millions—the cost of securing the C-of-O for his 13.5 acres—just to access a relatively small working capital loan.
This struggle is mirrored by countless entrepreneurs, including Toye Eniola of the Association of Housing Corporations of Nigeria, who was also forced to shut down his poultry farm after being denied a simple million loan because he could not afford the estimated million cost of his land documentation.
Across Nigeria, lengthy, costly procedures and endless bureaucratic delays at Lands Bureaus ensure that the country’s most valuable assets remain uncollateralized, effectively stalling entrepreneurial ambition and crippling the potential for credit-led economic growth.
