The Federal Government has partnered with the Niger State Government to enhance land registration and title processing within the state. Dr. Abdul Husseini, Permanent Secretary for the Niger Ministry for Lands and Survey, revealed the collaboration on Tuesday. He spoke while receiving a Federal Government delegation in Minna.
The delegation was led by Mr. Collins Alabi, Director of Lands at the Federal Ministry of Housing and Urban Development. The team’s visit also included inspecting the equipment upgrade at the Niger State Geographic Information System (NGISS) agency. This upgrade was recently approved by Governor Umaru Bago. Husseini stated the goal was to discuss ways to significantly improve the state’s land titling process.
“The Federal Government support will enable Niger state to adopt global best practices in land registration and titling,” he said.
Husseini added that the visit was also to assess the state progress in implementing the programme after the minister’s visit to Bago.
According to him, the director is impressed that the state government had already keyed into the project and will be among the leading states when they report back to the minister.
He highlighted the challenges associated with land registration in the state to include land ownership disputes and the need to train personnel on new technologies.
“Issues of land always comes with issues of land ownership, disputes, among others, training is very important, we are moving into a digital era, people are to be trained on how to use technology,” he said.
In his remarks, Alabi said the land registration and documentation programme had been ongoing for some time and the ministry was committed to upscaling it to attain global best practices.
“We have started this project for a while now, and all the opportunities to upscale it have been available to attain that optimal goal,” he said.
He explained that the purpose of the visit was to sensitise the state government on the project and explore ways to collaborate on the project.
According to him, some states would like to be where Niger is now, adding the governor would be invited to a forum to discuss the project’s progress and future plans
