EXPERTS CHALLENGE FG ON LAND REFORM REPORT

Experts in the real estate sector on Thursday urged the Federal Government to implement the report of Prof. Akin Mabogunje's committee on land reform.

The experts, who spoke to the News Agency of Nigeria in separate interviews, said the implementation of the report would enable government to realise its housing target for the citizenry.

They asserted that the lack of proper land administration policy was responsible for government's inability to achieve its dream in the housing sector.

Vice-President, Nigerian Institution of Estate Surveyors and Valuers, Mr. Bode Adediji, said the land tenure system had discouraged the private sector from complementing government's efforts in housing delivery.

'In spite of the Land Use Act, access to land still remains difficult. This is one of the two major problems confronting housing development in Nigeria,' he said.

Adediji urged government to critically examine the committee's recommendations to make housing development easy.

Chairman, Real Estate Development Association of Nigeria, South West Zone, Dr Timothy Nubi, said there were many land areas that could not be developed at corporate or individual levels.

'This is because of the policy in operation in the country. Many family lands are not documented in the land registry; as such, developing them into estates have become difficult,' he added.

Nubi stressed that a review of the Land Use Act, Land Reforms and Land Administration in the country had become imperative to facilitate effective housing delivery.

Former Chairman, Nigerian Institute of Town Planners, Lagos chapter, Mr Femi Olomola, urged government to urgently act on the land administration document.

He said that although the recommendations might not be different from those of 2002 headed by the same Mabogunje, it was important that government produced a blueprint on it.