MBAN to surmount land title restrictions through “Formula 131”

Lagos   –    Mortgage Banking Association of Nigeria (MBAN) on Wednesday expressed readiness to surmount the bottlenecks associated with land title processes through the introduction of “Formula 131’’.

The MBAN’s President, Mr Adeniyi Akinlusi, made the disclosure in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos.

He said that formula 131 stipulates that the cost of obtaining land title should not be more than one per cent of the land and property value.

According to him, the formula also demands that it must not exceed a maximum of three days for the land title to be granted to applicants and that all transactions and processes to it must be done at one point of government office.

He noted that the motive was to enhance wealth creation through easy access to land, easy means of doing land business and strengthen the nation’s mortgage system.

“This is because easy access to land title and other land documents to a great extent determines the volume of mortgage loans transactions.

“And we have started meeting with the responsible authorities to dialogue on ways to leverage the land title procedures and requirements through implementation of the formula131,’’ he said.

Akinlusi said the inability to access land and land titles were the fundamental factors responsible for mass poverty, especially in the developing world.

He said that more than 50 per cent of the landed properties in the country were dead assets because they lacked the requisite documents and titles.

According to him, whatever problem that has been experienced with title transfer and registration in Nigeria can be traced to the imperfection in the underlining enactment of the Land Use Act of 1978.

Akinlusi said that under the Act, only the governor of the state could issue a Certificate of Occupancy (C of O) as an evidence of land title for duration of 99 years.

“This would have been okay if not for the problems associated with time wastage, expensive processing and endemic corruption which undermines property transaction and investment.

Credit: SundiataPost