Engr. Bababe and Prof. Mitlin
The Executive Secretary, Borno Geographic Information Service (BOGIS), Engr. Adam Bababe, has assured the agency’s commitment to improving urban land management and expanding access to land titles for low-income urban residents.
A statement signed by SA Media in BOGIS, said Bababe made this known during a courtesy visit by the Chief Executive Officer of the African Cities Research Consortium (ACRC), Prof. Diana Mitlin, who led other partners to BOGIS for ongoing collaboration.
The statement said that Bababe highlighted BOGIS’s efforts in modernizing land administration, digitizing records, and simplifying the land titling process to encourage more people to obtain legal ownership.
“He noted that the Systematic Land Titling (SLT) programme, launched in 2022, has significantly increased conversions of customary land titles to statutory ones adding BOGIS is working to integrate statutory and customary land rights into a single digital database for efficient administration.
“Bababe further stated 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).”
The statement which which described Prof. Mitlin, the CEO of ACRC as a researcher from Manchester University, explained that ACRC being a project under university was funded by the Global Development Institution (GDI), that focuses on research-driven urban solutions, particularly in governance and economic development.
Prof. Mitlin in her remarks, commended BOGIS for its proactive approach and emphasized the need for land ownership to less privileged, particularly women to boost their economic empowerment.
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.
Also in his remarks, the SLT Project Coordinator, Babagana Hassan, stressed the importance of land titles as legal assets that provide security and financial opportunities to holders.
