Land Use Act is a big Impediment to Housing Ownership in Nigeria
Mr. Emeka Eleh, the 20th president of the Nigerian Institution of Estate Surveyors and Valuers (NIESV) said he wants to flush out quacks from the profession as well as educate Nigerians on the role of estate surveyors with a view to making them petronise NIESV members. Eleh who is also a construction management expert, is a senior partner in Ubosi-Eleh and Co, a firm of Estate Surveyors and Valuers. He spoke to Chris Uba in Lagos.
Congratulations on your election as the 20th President of the Nigerian Institution of Estate Surveyor and Valuers (NIESV). Why did you put yourself forward for election for the position?
Thank you very much. You have to know our name very well. The reason I chose to vie for the position derives from my love for the profession. It is my career; it is my life. I love it. I studied Estate Management because I love the land profession. We are land economists. We are land activators and managers of land resources. I have always loved the profession.
After studying Estate Management in the university, I went ahead to qualify as an Estate Surveyor and Valuer. Since after graduation, I have been in the profession. So, it is the love I have for the profession; the passion I have for it that led me to seek for the position so that I can contribute my own quota to the development of the profession and Nigeria.
What are these contributions that you want to make to the development of the profession and Nigeria?
You must appreciate the importance of land in the affairs of man. Land is very important in the life of man. Our business as Estate Surveyors and Valuers is to advise man on how he can use his land profitably. We are experts in land management. Therefore, if you appreciate the importance governments all over the world attach to land, then you will appreciate the role we play. So, we are the foremost land professionals to manage land revenues. By revenues, I mean the land, the house on top of it and all the things that generally revolve around land.
We feel that the country needs to pay attention to the management of its land resources for it to grow. No country in the world can develop without managing its land well. If you look at Europe and America, their landed assets are well-managed. Nigeria is a vast country. Every plot of land in Nigeria is an asset to the owner. It is wealth.
You have to take care of the land. Everybody has some land or the other to be developed in any part of this country. If you don’t have something you are building, you have land somewhere either as a family or as an individual. The land is there and our aim is that government should recognise that it can create wealth from the land not necessarily for building bungalows or farming or for road construction but to understand that you must create wealth from the land that you have, not just living and building or farming on it.
And what do we mean by wealth creation? Wealth creation is very vital to the economy. Unless people are able to create wealth our macro-economy will continue to fumble and poverty will continue to rise. Recent government statistics says that about 112 million people are poor in Nigeria. And we are saying that if our land assets are well managed that won’t be the case because we believe that with the land they have, they can create wealth. What do I mean by create wealth? If you are able to have document for the land that you hold you can go to the bank or micro-financial institution and raise money for your business. Then the chance is that you have turned your business and your life around.
But you know, the challenge we have is that most property we have in Nigeria, most of the landed property we have in the country are not covered by any title. What we call title is the evidence that you own the land and the evidence is what we call certificate of occupancy. But the vast lands in this country are not covered by any title. To be candid, in what I am talking about, government policy says that you can use the title you have on a landed property as a collateral to get a loan, it means that virtually the entire land in my village can’t be used for that purpose and the same thing in your village. Even in Lagos that is urbanised, I am sure only about 10 per cent of land in Lagos has title that can be taken to a bank.
What we are saying is that the same way you register your car is the way you register your land. When you register a car they give you a vehicle document; then somebody can pick that vehicle document and go to the vehicle registry to confirm that the car belongs to you. If the person wants to buy the car, he doesn’t need to see your face to know who you are. He just looks at the document and confirms that it is genuine, that you are the true owner; he will just pay you because it has been confirmed by the central vehicle registry. We are saying that the same procedure should be applied to the lands. All the lands in the country should be registered and people should be given titles for the ownership.
When this is done, you create a market; it makes it easier for buying and selling of land because it makes it easier for confirmation of the ownership and title holders of the land. Just like the way you buy land in the local communities. Like my village for instance, you have to confirm that the land belongs to my father and the grandfather and of my family line. You have to go through the genealogy to confirm, what should have been done by the document. It will show that this property belongs to Eleh and you will see when I acquired it. Even if I take it to a bank in Kano, even if I take it to a bank in Kafanchan, I can use it as collateral.
So, what we are saying is that every land in the country must have a title that can be verified. It will help the country to create wealth where we are lacking. As professional people, we know that real estate is such that like in this building we are now, can be owned by five different people and everybody is happy doing his own business.
How about the owner who will mortgage it to one bank and the bank has the mortgage paper meanwhile there are tenants sitting here with leases of five years, one year or two years. Even the bank that it is mortgaged to can sell the mortgage to another bank so that you can have different levels of ownerships and everybody has a document that shows that he has an interest in the property in one form or the other. That way, multiple levels of wealth can be created from the property. Unlike right now where the vast land in this country, whether you are farming or living on it, nothing can be done with it. So, you see a man who has one hectre of land, whether in Lagos or somewhere, he can’t raise 10,000, he can’t raise N20,000 because he doesn’t have a title to the land.
So, that is why we need to change our land policy. Government should reform our land policy. It should reform our land system so that every body will have a title to his land.
Is this part of the project you want to pursue during your term in the office?
Well, for us it is a national advocacy. We want the proper thing to be done in our land tenure system because it will help the economy. So, for us it is a national advocacy. We learnt that the government has a land reform committee and we are advocating that this should be done for the benefit of the economy and citizens of this country. And beyond that, we are saying that even when the land reform takes shape, the government should review certain sections of our Land Use Act. It is no longer working.
Can you point out the areas that are not working?
I won’t say that it is a bad law but there are provisions of that law that have become a big impediment to housing ownership in this country. I mean, it is intended to ensure land ownership to every Nigerian. That was the intent. You see the time that law was promulgated professionals like ours complained and submitted memoranda and they were ignored. That law was a product of a minority report. The committee that sat, the majority submitted one report, the minority submitted another report but the minority report was accepted.
Part of that report requires that you must submit the document of any transaction in land to the state governor. All land of each state in the federation are vested in the governor of that state and such land is held in trust and administered for the use and common benefit of all Nigerians in accordance with the provisions of this act. The process is time consuming. The approval can take you from three months to eternity. Even in Lagos, where they have managed to make it faster, it is still difficult. It can take eternity as I said. In some other countries it takes three days, two days.
When lands are registered you create a huge market, a market confidence where buying and selling of mortgage is done. Buying and selling of mortgage builds the economy. The strength of an economy of a country is measured by how many people play in the mortgage market. But that can’t be done here especially in the banks. You can’t blame them anyway. The kind of land reform we are advocating will help housing ownership in this country. Right now, in this country, housing deficit is between 15 million and 20 million. But how do you solve the problem? Without mortgage it is not possible. Mortgage is vital to housing ownership. People need to convey title to banks because it will give them mortgage. The bank needs to convey it. These are some of the issues we have been advocating.
We are also talking about the issue of quackery. You should also appreciate the fact that a lot of people quack when they shouldn’t because they are not trained and permitted by the law to do so. Our definition of a quack is anybody who is not qualified as an estate surveyor and valuer. Once you are not qualified as an estate surveyor and valuer you cannot practise. For us, we believe the professionals must act within the context of what they are saying. We are saying that property managers, facility managers, real estate managers and estate surveyors and valuers are the ones we recognise because this is our core area. That is why we are professionals. We don’t delve into the areas we are not trained. Any one who is not trained in our core area is a quack.
This is part of what we want members of the public to know. Why do you deal with unqualified people who call themselves estate agents? Why can’t you deal with qualified firms? Qualified firms are cheaper, better to deal with. You have recourse to recall back if you feel you have not been treated well. If you have not been treated well report the person to us. We have what is called Professional Practice Ethic Committee. If you report any professional misconduct on the part of any of our members that person will be dealt with appropriately.So, that is what we are telling the public. Don’t bother dealing with those unqualified people. I mean, it is like somebody wants to build a house, instead of getting engineers to do the structural designs; he hires a quack to do the designing and the building collapses. A house is at any point in time the biggest investment anybody can make. Where you live, check it; it is the biggest annual investment you make. So, why don’t people do it with diligence and care and deal with the right people when they are investing?
One of our arguments is that it is cheaper to deal with estate surveyors and valuers. When you deal with a professional estate surveyor and valuer, you can be sure you are dealing with the right person. We are cheaper, you get professional service and you have a fallback. If the person does not give you the kind of service you want report that person to us. Our Professional Practice Ethic Committee will take it up and look into the case. If the person is found to have done the wrong thing he is punished. That is the advantage that you have by dealing with our members.
We also appreciate that estate management is a very lucrative business. So, many people want to go into the practice. But the Nigerian Institution of Estate Surveyors and Valuers is saying that if you have such interest, come and register with the body. Part of the challenges we have with the estate agency is that the bulk of those who practice are not qualified; they are not regulated and they are not trained. And because they are not regulated people are being duped on a daily basis. You deal with somebody today, tomorrow he moves away with your money. We want to stop that.
Are you planning to propose a law that will address this challenge to the National Assembly?
Well, that is a long-term venture we are planning. We are planning to suggest a law or an Act of Parliament that will address the issue. But, before now, we have created a body that will be registered to deal with the situation. But our long-term intention is to work with our members who are in the National Assembly to that effect. Our goal is to prevent consumers from dealing with unqualified people. We believe that if people deal with our members they will get the right service.
From all that you have said, your sector is very vital to the economic development of the country, but in concrete terms can you tell us how much it contributes to the GDP Annually?
You know we are a service industry. Our contributions may not be visible in physical terms. But you can see the economy is riding on our back. Look at the banking sector and the loans given out by banks. Those loans are given out based on valuations done by our members. So, we are part of the development chain.