At a recent industry gathering, the Minister of Housing and Urban Development, Arc. Ahmed Musa Dangiwa, shed light on why Nigeria lagged in the World Bank’s global rankings for property registration—citing convoluted procedures, long processing times, and prohibitive costs as major culprits. According to Dangiwa, these issues discourage investment and place undue strain on ordinary Nigerians.
To address these challenges, Dangiwa urged state governments to earmark one to three percent of their annual budgets for land administration and systematic titling. He emphasized that robust land governance is Nigeria’s most powerful tool to build a trillion-dollar economy.
Speaking at the 30th Conference of Directors of Lands, Dangiwa referenced international standards, noting that land ministries worldwide operate effectively on about one percent of public budgets. He argued that even setting aside 0.5 to one percent could sustain digital land registries, ongoing documentation, and updated cadastral records—provided the funds are used for impactful services like titling, digitization, and dispute resolution, rather than administrative overhead.
Dangiwa outlined a vision where investment in genuine service delivery would unlock new revenue streams for states, grant citizens secure property rights, and transform land from dormant capital into a dynamic economic asset. He positioned the Land4Growth Programme as Nigeria’s best strategy for reaching a trillion-dollar economy, making land a viable asset for credit, investment, and state revenue.
He also acknowledged persistent hurdles across the states: outdated manual processes, fragmented records, corruption vulnerabilities, insecure land tenure for the vulnerable, and low revenue collections despite immense potential. Under President Bola Tinubu’s Renewed Hope Agenda, Dangiwa asserted that land administration will now be seen as a driver of economic reform, not mere bureaucracy, with concrete policy actions already underway.
