Nasarawa announces policy shift to banks over CsofO

Sonny Agassi, state Commissioner for Lands and Urban Development, who hosted the interactive meeting with the banks at the ministry’s headquarters in Lafia, unveiled the newly introduced Certificate of Occupancy (CofO) to them and announced the new policy shift where banks are urged against accepting Rights of Occupancy (RsofO) and other land documents other than […]

Sonny Agassi, state Commissioner for Lands and Urban Development, who hosted the interactive meeting with the banks at the ministry’s headquarters in Lafia, unveiled the newly introduced Certificate of Occupancy (CofO) to them and announced the new policy shift where banks are urged against accepting Rights of Occupancy (RsofO) and other land documents other than the certificate.
He said the CofO is the only registered land document recognised by the laws of the land to serve as collateral for facilities from the banks, observing that banks have been accepting RsofO without minding the obvious consequences on their businesses.  
 Agassi, who was accompanied by Alhaji Ibrahim Jibril Usman, Project Manager of Nasarawa Geographic Information Service (NAGIS) and Ali Al-Makura, a former bank executive who is now an aide to the governor, informed the array of bankers at the event that the administration has reversed the trend that compelled banks to go for other documents than the legal one. He said the governor, in barely three years, has signed and issued over 500 CsofO and still issuing, as against the less than 600 issued by four previous administrations since the creation of Nasarawa as a state on October 1, 1996.
He informed them of the new introduction which has raised Nasarawa as the pioneer state, after Abuja, with a new certificate bearing both visible and invincible security features that are anti-forgery, urging banks to take advantage of the new records set by the administration to strengthen their businesses with their customers by encouraging beneficiaries of their facilities to visit the ministry to recertify or get certified.
 The bankers described the initiative as “courageous” because it took its predecessors about 15 years to sit tight on a system that compelled banks to go for lesser documents in serving their customers and pledged to comply with the policy shift.
 The banks urged the ministry to cause a written communication to them, so they can forward same to their headquarters for the notice of their respective legal departments.
The banks present at the interactive were Zenith, Guarantee Trust Bank, First Bank, Union Bank, Fidelity Bank, Unity Bank, United Bank of Africa, Diamond Bank, First City Monument Bank, Eco Bank, Mainstreet Bank, Keystone Bank, and Access Bank.
 Land certification was tied down by previous governments. Only personalities with good connection with Government House had it.
NAGIS, a habitat project which has put all of Nasarawa’s lands on the computer through a computerized and digitiztion programme introduced the recertification of property, phasing out the old and bogus certification where the governor’s signature appeared in not less than 16 places.
In Nasarawa, as is with many states, land titles are a function of one’s connection with Government House, a development which saw only about 600 CsofO in the hands of privileged property owners in 17 years. But that is being reversed now, with NAGIS seeing hundreds of certificates in many hands that thought they would never receive the document in their lifetime.