Benue Crashes Land Fees By 50%

                 Gov Samuel Ortom

In a bid to encourage the residents to regularise their land titles, the Benue State Government has cut-down all land fees by 50 percent. 

Benue Commissioner for Lands, Survey and Solid Minerals, Mr Bernard Unenge made this known in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Makurdi, on Sunday.

Unenge hinted that the state government has computerised all land records to fast track the issuance of titles in the state.

He noted that the application for land titles can be obtained within a month, adding that the initial outrage over the introduction of the state Geographic Information Service, GIS, has been addressed.

Unenge disclosed that the government created awareness that improved the application for the acquisition of land and titles. 

“The issuing time which normally takes a long period has been worked on and the problem is now seamless and faster while the quality of work delivered is top notch,” the commissioner added.

He disclosed that since the adoption of the GIS, that the ministry has achieved a lot in terms of issuing titles, granting of applications and in the area of revenue generation.

This, he said led to the establishment of Benue geographic community project.

He hinted that the project was aimed at reducing cases bordering on issuance of land titles like lobbying, double allocation and misplacement of application documents in the ministry.

The commissioner pointed out that the project improved their services compared to the analog era when the ministry was challenged by issuing double titles on a piece of land.

“But with the coming on board of our project, it is difficult for you to issue two titles on one piece of land because the process has been digitised and it shows an existing title", he said. 

He stated that the digitised process reduced the number of disputes resulting from issuance of double titles.