Lagos – A real estate consultant, Mr Kenneth Nduka, has urged state governments to streamline the processes of acquiring land titles and payment of taxes for more revenue generation.
Nduka, 1st Vice President, Nigerian Institute of Building (NIOB), gave the advice in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Monday in Lagos.
He said leveraging the processes of obtaining land title documents would pave way for more land owners and developers to apply for the documents.
“When more people apply and get the land title documents, it will invariably boost government’s revenue.
“But with the present pattern of collecting property taxes and the method of acquiring land titles, state governments are losing huge revenues from untitled plots of land/property,” he said.
According to him, poor documentation is a major factor that contributes to untitled property in the country.
Nduka told NAN that available data showed that not more than three per cent of the plots of land in Nigeria had titles.
He said that the economic implication was that governments were losing revenue on property documentation.
“This is because every property transaction that connotes some form of taxation belongs to the government.
“So, if the government registers a plot of land, it means that before one does anything on it, such a person must pay a form of tax to the government.
“And if all land has titles, it means that government will earn more income from the exercise.
“But if it is only three per cent of land that is registered, it means the remaining 97 per cent are not accounted for.
“It means the government is not even aware the land exists.
“And this implies that people buy and sell land, but nobody pays any form of levy to the government,” he said.
Nduka said the untitled acres and hectares of land all over the country remained part of the nation’s untapped wealth.
He added that the untapped revenue showed that property tax remained a major stabilising factor in the global economy. (NAN)