New land reforms seen aiding ease of doing business in Lagos
By JOSHUA BASSEY
Lagos is undertaking critical reforms in land transactions including the automation of land administration in what is likely to count for Nigeria’s quest for a better showing in the ease of doing business ranking.
The reforms, among other things, will cut down on the time spent by members of the public, organisations and investors in processing and closing land-related transactions with the state government.
Key among the reforms is the harmonisation of Demand Notice and Assessment Letter to encompass all fees payable for Governor’s Consent on a property. Others include the introduction of automated searches at the land registry as well as the redesigning of the layout of the land registry to ensure the flow of processes with the ultimate aim of reducing turn-around-time.
The harmonisation of the demand notice simplifies the hitherto back and forth arrangement in which customers were required to interface with offices to seal transactional deals relating to payment of consent fee, stamp duty, capital gain tax, registration fee among others.
Yetunde Onabule, the special adviser to the state government on urban development, who confirmed this to BusinessDay, said with the reform, the demand notice has harmonised fees to include consent fee, capital gain tax, stamp duty, registration fee, neighbourhood improvement charge, charting fee as well as endorsement and Form 1c charges.
“This new payment schedule affords applicants the opportunity to pay all fees related to the issuance of Governor’s Consent in a single transaction,” said Onabule.
According to her, in addition to the newly introduced payment regime, the automated searches at the land registry are now conducted within one hour of submission of any request, which means that applicants are no longer required to conduct, search prior to registration of title documents as had been the case in the past.
“With this new process, there is already a significant reduction in the time frame for obtaining Certified True Copies (CTC) of the land title documents to a maximum period of two hours.
“I have no doubt that by the time these initiatives are fully implemented; they will revolutionize land administration, not only in Lagos State, but also in Nigeria. Our commitment is also to the country’s place in the ease of doing business up to 50 places,” Onabule said.
Nigeria is ranked 145th position in the World Bank’s ease of doing business index. The World Bank in its recent report titled “Doing Business 2018: Performing to create jobs” said Nigeria moved up 24 points from 169 position on the 2017 ranking and also 170th position on the 2016 ranking to 145 in Bank’s 2018 report.
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