By SADIQ ABUBAKAR, Maiduguri –
The Executive Secretary, Borno Geographic Information Service (BOGIS), Engr. Adam Bababe, has reaffirmed the agency’s commitment to improve urban land management and expand access to land titles for low-income urban residents in Maiduguri city.
Bababe made this known on Wednesday during a courtesy visit by the Chief Executive Officer of the African Cities Research Consortium (ACRC), Professor Diana Mitlin, who led other partners to BOGIS as part of their ongoing collaboration with BOGIS.
The Executive Secretary, however, highlighted BOGIS’s efforts towards modernizing land administration, digitalizing records, and simplifying the land titling process to encourage more people to obtain legal ownership.
He also said that the Systematic Land Titling (SLT) programme, which was launched in 2022, has significantly increased conversions of customary land titles to statutory ones, adding that BOGIS is presently working towards integrating statutory and customary land rights into a single digital data base for efficient administration.
The ES added that data capture has been completed for low- and medium-density areas of Maiduguri, with work on undeveloped and high-density neighborhoods still ongoing and sought ACRC’s support in training BOGIS staff, particularly in Geographic Information Systems (GIS).
On her part, Prof. Mitlin, explained that ACRC is a project under University of Manchester, funded by the Global Development Institution (GDI), that focuses on research-driven urban solutions, particularly, in governance and economic development.
She also commended BOGIS for its proactive approach and emphasized that land ownership, especially for women, boosts economic empowerment.
SLT Project Coordinator, Babagana Hassan stressed the importance of land titles as legal assets that provide security and financial opportunities.
As part of its intervention, ACRC has pledged to fully support 100 women in two locations within MMC and Jere in securing land titles and cover application fees for an additional 1,000 residents in Maiduguri.
