Dr. Kayode Fayemi, the Governor of Ekiti State has distributed Certificates of Occupancy to 237 property owners in the State.
The Governor, who was represented by the Commissioner for Finance, Mr. Akin Oyebode at the presentation of the documents to the beneficiaries
in Ado Ekiti, stressed that the concept will help in tackling land grabbers and other fraudulent practices in land related matters in the state.
He lamented the adverse effect of low acquisition of proper land documents on business growth and general development of the State, emphasizing that regularization of C of O would promote business interest through access to bank loans amongst others.
Fayemi said that his administration introduced the home owners’ charter scheme where C of Os are procured within three weeks after application to accelerate the acquisition of land documents, adding that the State had successfully eliminated some of the administrative bottlenecks and reduces the required fees of processing the documents.
According to him, the policy would boost business interests while issues of disputes over landed property would also be minimized by the policy.
“With this, you now have valid and legal documents that guarantee your ownership of these landed property and you can also use them to further your business interest.” he told the beneficiaries.
In his remarks, the Chairman of the Ekiti State Internal Revenue Service (EKIRS), Mr. Olumuyiwa Ogunmilade described the land documents’ regularization programme initiated by Fayemi, as a clear attestation to the governor’s avowed stand to propel businesses and curb social unrest from Ekiti.
Ogunmilade expressed satisfaction with the contributions of the programme to shoring up the state’s internally generated revenues (IGR).
“Getting these valid documents within a period of three months unlike before was clear evidence that Ekiti had overcome the bottlenecks being encountered in the acquisition of C of O.
“This policy helps in ensuring that we get our land documents cheaper, faster and in a less cumbersome way and a lot of people are now applying to regularise their land documents as a result of this programme.
“Those working at the Ekiti State University, Federal University, Oye Ekiti, Bamidele Olumilua University of Education, Science and Technology and others are just waiting for us to make a success of the first batch for them to be filing their processes in droves likewise other citizens.
“The most important aspect of it is that it also helps in generating more revenues to the state because people are enthusiastic to apply once they can get it within three weeks they make their payments and present their documents on time”.
Also speaking, the Director General, Ekiti State Bureau of Land Matters and Special Adviser to the Governor on Land Matters, Mrs. Funke Falodun, stated that the programme was introduced by the government to boost businesses and expand the scope of people’s access to loan acquisition in banks.
Falodun added that it would also have a spiral effect on the operations of land developers, architects, builders and other professionals in the system.
Packaged by Emmanuel Adeniran
