Eyo-Asuquo Akaiso
For proper and effective management and documentation of all lands in Akwa Ibom State, efforts are on top gear to digitalize all land transactions in the State.
Speaking after a knowledge sharing and demonstration meeting between the Ministry of Lands and Water Resources and the Consultant for Akwa Ibom Geographic Information System at the Ministry’s Conference room, the Commissioner, Pastor Umo Eno stated that the Governor Udom Emmanuel led administration seeks to ensure that all lands are digitally captured in Akwa Ibom State for purposes of management.
He maintained that it is imperative for the State to know all its lands for the ease of calculating premium, rate, and to automate the process of getting C of O, do certificate of deposit, as well as to rightly capture payments.
The Commissioner said when the GIS fully comes on board, it will enable government to know appropriate billing, the rate paid and who paid and to make verification in split seconds without many letters, stressing that it will also be easy for citizens to sit in their houses and have access online to particular plots of land that they want to buy.
According to him, “when it comes on board, everybody that has something to do with land management in the State – the Governor, Commissioner for Lands, Surveyor General and others – will be able to source for information with the push of a button.
“You will also be able to validate the type of land, its location, possible cost of implementation of acquiring that land and it will also help us to be sure that we are not having overflow of lands.”
While explaining that people buy land that overlap another, he assured that all teething problems associated with the purchase of property will be curbed when Akwa GIS comes on board.
Commenting on the implementation of the project, he said “there are still a lot of work to be done, we hope that by October they will be doing arial photograph of the whole State which will involve drones flying across the State and we will get that imagery and then work on the data base and once the data base is ready, we will come onboard.”
Also speaking, the consultant working on the Akwa GIS project, Dr Frank Ekpenyong of KYLE CHRISTIAN NIGERIA LIMITED said “What we are doing is automating the land processes that exist; it is aimed at dealing with the issue of land theft and making sure that people buy land from the real owners.”
While saying that his firm was fully ready to ensure the project takes off successfully to achieve its goals and objectives, Ekpenyong noted, “we are really far ahead, we will need to integrate the payment platform from the Akwa Ibom Internal Revenue, and we have trained the stakeholders and people that will be using the system to process.”
The Consultant, who enumerated the benefits of the project, said even things like applying for C of O will also go through the process including embarking on search to ascertain the authenticity of land.
“We have to make sure we get it right that is why we have the presentation today to ensure that everyone understands what we are doing,” he said.
The automation process he said will help curtail the process of going through many agents and paying multiple fees during land processes, adding, “we are going to fly the whole State and when you buy a land you will see it on the map where it is situated.”
He noted, “when you go through the automation process, you are going to be rest assured that once you negotiate a land and buy, it is actually going to be a legitimate deal provided you go through the online search process.
You won’t waste your money buying lands that are in government areas and this will reduce the amount of time needed to process the applications.”
Ekpenyong thanked the Governor, Mr. Udom Emmanuel for believing in the vision to automate land processes in the State and for giving them the opportunity to embark on the project which he said is going to add value to the State and a plus to the Governor.
Asked of his track records, Ekpenyong reeled out his working experiences spanning his tint with United Kingdom Ministry of Defence spiced with a doctorate degree in relevant field, which according to him; endow him with the requisite competence for the job.
Present at the meeting were the State Surveyor General, Mrs Emem Isang, directors in the Ministry and staff of KYLE CHRISTIAN NIGERIA LIMITED among others.
