The Ondo State Governor, Mr. Rotimi Akeredolu, on Wednesday, kicked off the distribution of digitalised Certificate of Occupancy to the residents of the state for their landed properties.
The state government had earlier established a scheme called ‘Home Ownership Charter of Ondo State’ through which the residents of the state with landed properties could obtain the C of O without any bureaucratic bottleneck.
Akeredolu, who spoke at the commencement of the distribution of the C of O, held at the governor’s office, Akure, the state capital, explained that the scheme would eradicate difficulty in the issuance of the document.
According to him, the objective of HOCOS was to make land transactions and titling less cumbersome and transparent to the public through digitisation of processes.
He said, “In line with this charter, we have successfully moved, in an innovative manner, from a five-leaf manually-produced Certificate of Occupancy to an abridged single-sheet digitised format that is produced with speed, efficiency and accuracy.
“We are proud to say that we have achieved this objective. Rest assured that we will make the review of land administration policies a continuous process until we achieve perfection. The HOCOS platform has brought about a turnaround in our land titling process with reduction in the unmitigated frustrations and nasty experiences of our people which were imposed by the activities of touts.
“We have been able to eradicate the associated bottlenecks and loss of revenue. Undoubtedly, the scheme will boost the economic activities of our people through subsequent transactions with financial institutions after granting of title which can be easily used as collaterals in financial transactions.”
The governor also stated that his administration had strengthened the land administration sector in the state by recruiting 35 qualified professionals in the fields of architecture, quantity surveying, land surveying, estate management and building to boost the capacity and manpower need of the ministry of infrastructure, lands and housing.
THE PUNCH
