Plateau engages stakeholders on land administration

The Plateau State Government has engaged stakeholders to find ways of improving land administration and generating revenue…

The Plateau State Government has engaged stakeholders to find ways of improving land administration and generating revenue.

Speaking during the stakeholders meeting, the Commissioner for Lands, Survey and Town Planning, Yakubu Dati, said Plateau’s land-based revenue had remained untapped and that returns from the sector were in dire need of a turn around.

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Mr Dati said, “It is beyond argument that the world over land-based revenue is the black gold of the 21st Century, even more so with the dwindling income generated from crude oil occasioned by alternative means of energy such as solar and biofuel which are eroding the dependence hitherto placed on crude oil.

“In Plateau State, land-based revenue has remained hugely untapped and the returns from the sector are in dire need of a turn around. It is for this and other reasons that the ministry organised this stakeholders’ engagement in order to bring professionals, technocrats, development partners and clients of the ministry under one roof to brainstorm on the way forward and to chart a way forward for the growth and development of the state through increased revenue generation.” 

He said the ministry had begun enumeration of properties, mandatory recertification of all Certificates of Occupancy (Cs of O) and standardisation of conversion of titles from customary to statutory as part of effort to strengthen land administration in the state.

Dati further said the ministry had also begun massive issuance of demand notice for payment of ground rent and commencement of recertification within Miango and Rantya layouts.

He explained that, “The process of obtaining titles is being simplified, as well as the medium of payment of fees by the ongoing integration between the ministry and the Plateau State Internal Revenue Service to reduce public apathy in the payments of land-based fees in the state.”

In his keynote address, the Vice Chancellor of the Plateau State University (PLASU), Bokkos, Yohanna Daniel Izam, said land administration was very key to the peace and stability of the state.

He said if land administration was not properly handled, it could lead to violent conflicts in the state.