Lagos approves new residential schemes

Lagos approves new residential schemes

The prayers of thousands of Lagos residents, who are desirous of acquiring plots of land in government-owned residential and commercial schemes, may soon be answered as the state authorities will soon announce the availability of new schemes.



As a result of the fraudulent activities of land speculators, who capitalised on the scramble by intending developers to acquire plots in government schemes and due to non-availability of plots in the existing schemes, the state government had suspended further allocations until new schemes would be introduced.
In apparent response to daily enquiries and requests from people who had grown weary of the dubious antics of some private land owners and their descendants, the Lagos State Government has now decided to introduce new schemes from which interested members of the public can apply for allocation.
It was gathered that the Lands Bureau, New Towns Development Authority and relevant ministries and agencies of government had been working on the selection of suitable sites and the design of sustainable schemes for the citizens.
According to the Permanent Secretary, Lands Bureau, Mr. Hakeem Muri-Okunola, some of the new schemes that are ready for allocation to members of the public are the phase two of the Agbowa Mixed Development Scheme, Ayobo Residential Scheme Extension and Lekki Peninsula Scheme I, which is adjacent to the state Ministry of Housing site.
Some other schemes, whose preliminary design has been completed and are awaiting topographical survey plans from the office of the Surveyor-General of the state include the Oba Akran Garden Scheme, Suntan Beach Scheme, Iya Afin Residential Scheme, Magotho City, Fadaka City and Povita Akakumo Residential/Mixed Development Scheme, all in Badagry; and Erelu Estate, Olokonla.
Others are Arewa Court Scheme, Idera City Scheme and Moremi Private Developers' Scheme, all in Lekki; Pota Residential Scheme, Ibeju Lekki Coastal City, Ehingbeti Waterfront Scheme, Akodo; Ehingbeti City, Akodo; and Ito-Omu Mixed Development Scheme, Epe.
Muri-Okunola, who spoke at a ministerial briefing on the activities of the bureau on Tuesday, said that as a result of the radical review of the procedures for obtaining Governor's Consent to subsequent transactions on land, 24,765 applications were received, 8,926 approved, while a total revenue of N11.4bn was generated between May 29, 2007 and February 28, 2010.
"From March 2010 to February 2011, a total number of 8,913 applications were received for Governor's Consent, while a total sum of N3.9bn was generated as revenue," he said.
On the revocation of right of occupancy and payment of compensation claims, the permanent secretary said that, from April 2009 to March 2010, N1.6bn was paid to communities and families, whose lands were acquired for public interest; while N1.08bn was paid as compensation from April 2010 to March 2011.
Muri-Okunola said that N3.305bn had been set aside in the state's 2011 budget for payment of compensation, noting that this should be adequate to accommodate all the current liabilities for the payment of compensation.
He said that the bureau's Electronic Document Management System, which aims at electronically archiving land documents to replace manual storage of vital documents, had become a model to other states of the federation.
Muri-Okunola said that as at December 32, 2010, about 10 million documents had been scanned into the EDMS database.
"To fast track the processing of Consent application within one month, Governor Babatunde Fashola has delegated powers to sign consent documents on subsequent transactions to more commissioners. Seven commissioners now sign Consent Deeds in line with Section 22 of the Land Use Act, CAP L5, Laws of the Federation," he said.