Amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, Benue State has embarked on aggressive opening of layouts in the state capital, spanning a sixteen-kilometre radius, coupled with the upgrading of twenty-five towns into urban centres. TOR VANDE-ACKA writes that the intention of the government in this regard is to ensure that more low-income earners own houses of their own
Since the emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic in Nigeria and the subsequent partial lockdown imposed on Benue State on April 1st 2020, things have not been the same in the State. Issues of palliatives have also come up and many, particularly; the well-to-do individuals in the society have come out to assist in cushioning the effect of the pandemic. The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) also rolled out its palliatives measures to cushion the effect of the pandemic in some sectors of the economy.
Recently, housing experts under the aegis of Housing Development Advocacy Network (HDAN) faulted the exclusion of a housing stimulus package in the palliative measures unveiled by the CBN. The Group President, HDAN, Festus Adebayo who reacted to the palliatives rolled out by the CBN stressed that it was not right to leave housing out because a lot of the people that are staying at home due to the pandemic don’t own houses of their own. His argument may be hinged on the fact that many families across the nation and even in Benue State don’t have houses of their own and as such were paying rents.
Many families in Makurdi, the state capital and indeed the state as a whole are groaning under the yoke of non-payment of house rents and are having issues with their landlords over non-payment of house rents. It was probably taking issues such as these into cognisance that Adebayo urged the government to roll out palliatives in the area of rental payment. He said, “At this crucial time, we call on the government to roll out palliatives in the area of rental payment. There should also be a break in mortgage payment while interests are also reviewed downward.”
While he proposed a six months free accommodation for persons unable to pay their rents during this period, he argued that the recommendation to the government is a way of rescuing the vulnerable and poor masses at this time from the clutches of poverty due to the pandemic. He further observed that providing decent shelter for affected persons at a time like this can be an effective way of limiting the spread of the virus, since some families are cramped up in homes that can barely accommodate their families. “We also understand that state governments on their own may not be able to handle some of these issues because of the huge resources involved, but may evolve strategies to alleviate some of these challenges,” he said.
The suggestion by HDAN is coming at a time when Benue State is thinking out of the box to provide shelter for its people through the opening up of new layouts in the state at costs that are near to nothing, as well as upgrading 25 towns into urban towns. The idea is that when people own houses of their own, in most cases 80 to 90 per cent of their challenges have been taken care of because outside of food, shelter is the next basic need of man in most societies.
Worse still, population explosion has led to increased demands for houses, even as house rent has continued to increase astronomically. However, the plan by Benue State government is to ensure that low income earners own houses of their own, a plan that would drastically reduce those depending on rentals. Thus, in the midst of the COVID- 19 pandemic, the state government has taken the issue of housing seriously and commenced modalities for massive opening up of land for development for onward sale to the public.
In the first instance, government has commenced the creation of over a hundred thousand plots of land for acquisition by members of the public for developmental purposes. Charged with the task, the State Commissioner for Lands, Survey and Solid Minerals, Bernard Unenge said the ministry has commenced the opening of layouts to address the housing needs of the people of the state.
Unenge pointed out that the State Governor, Samuel Ortom has directed that a 50% waiver of taxes be made on all titles as a way of encouraging the people of the state to own and develop their lands.
According to him, “When layouts are created; you have so much of plots created. One, they (low income earners) access from government free of charge and they can also process (their titles) during this period when this tax break has been given. Once they access it, processing of the titles during this period are also a bit lower because of the new tax regime that is in place. You know when you open up more layouts there is availability of plots and they are there for them to access from the ministry once they apply.
“But when you get it from the natives and it’s not planned, you are not sure of what you are buying; when you get the plot from the natives in an unplanned place, when planning comes, some people are very unlucky and sometimes it falls directly on a street. So, it makes lands you’re acquiring from opening up of layouts safe for you; you are sure of what you are acquiring. And there is this 50% tax waiver that is still on, but when the GIS (Geographical Information Services) programme fully comes up, we will drop it lower ’cause we are going to encourage more people to process titles on their properties. So once we have a break from this COVID – 19 pandemic, it could even be dropped lower because we want to factor more tax payers into the tax net.”
The Commissioner stated that since government planned to encourage less privileged people to acquire land of their own, it has commenced plans to work on the full takeoff of the Benue Geographical Information Services (BENGIS). When the project is completed and becomes fully functional, soon after the challenges posed by the COVID – 19 pandemic relaxes, it is expected that payment on titles would further drop. He explained that the state government has already awarded the contract for the BENGIS project; adding that but for the pandemic, work on the facility would’ve reached advanced stage.
Furthermore, he stated that as soon as BENGIS takes off, it is expected to generate about N10 billion in the first two years, part of which would be ploughed back into the system to make it more effective and functional. He stated that some of the economic benefits to be derived from the project include revenue generation, which would be channeled towards acquiring increased manpower, equipment for surveying and other technical activities as well as provide mobility for services to be provided for land administration in the state.
Also, three more BENGIS offices would spring up at the zonal level, as part of measures to bring land administration closer to the people, without them necessary going to Makurdi, the state capital to process their title documents. The Director Town Planning in the Ministry, Steve Adah said that it was also the desire of government to bequeath to the next generation a functional urban system. So, what government intends to do at the new and old layouts is to make it attractive.
“When that is done our entire land system; planning, survey, all aspects of land administration in the state will be digitised. This will do away with some of the loopholes we have been experiencing in the area of land administration”, he stated. Like we earlier stated, though the state governments on its own may not be able to handle a project of this magnitude, in view of the required resources, it could source funds to drive this initiative.
On the other hand, the state may solicit the support of the Federal Government or some of its agencies like the CBN, in order to make the project a reality and immediately go into planning that would ensure the mass release of plots to the public. As it is at the moment, the ministry cannot go into master planning, which is very expensive, but has embarked on piece meal planning, which will make the process a painstaking one.
But with enough funding, ” Government can come up with a master plan and I think it is in the offing, where we will integrate all the plans, and the peace meal plans we have done before and put it into one and upgrade it; come up with facilities that were not there and then come up with other aspects that we feel should be included and it becomes one plan, which is easy for implementation and monitoring.”, the Director said.
Once funds are accessed and master planning embarked on, plots would be released en mass and more members of the public would to access plots in a shorter duration than when it is released, piece meal.
