gis application in land administration in cross river...

GIS Application in Land Administration in Cross River State

Dr. Clement Oshaka. Director General Cross River Geographic Information Agency (CRGIA) 1

GIS APPLICATION IN LAND ADMINISTRATION IN CROSS RIVER STATE NIGERIA

A

PRESENTATION

BY

DR. CLEMENT OSHAKA

THE DIRECTOR GENERAL

CROSS RIVER GEOGRAPHIC INFORMATION AGENCY (CRGIA)

ON THE

2015 WORLD GIS DAY

Keywords: Land Administration| LIS| GIS| GPS| Automation of land process| CRGIS|CRGIA|

ABSTRACT

The efficient and effective land administration and its associated resources depend upon the availability of good land information. The need for information, which is the basic necessity for carrying out any planning, development and management activity, can hardly be over-emphasized. With regards to the developing nations and emerging states with inadequate resources, the need for having a reliable information base is even more important. The absence of the proper land records in the real estate market is another difficulty being faced by many developing countries. The reason may be unclear delimitation of individual or group rights, insecure ownership etc. The necessity for a functioning land market opens the way not only for private development but also for public land acquisition and other means of ensuring that land is available for dwelling and other urban needs. In this way the development and implementation of country-wide digital (starting with the states) land information system is an area that needs urgent attention. To this, many states in Nigeria (Cross River inclusive) are computerizing their land records and creating large databases with the use of GIS. Through GIS, land-related data are now being integrated, analyzed, and distributed in ways that until recently were not possible.

This presentation looks at Cross River geographic Information Agency, its conception, the project content and delivery, the status of the Agency, the benefits, challenges which highlights the institutional, organizational, and business problems that must be addressed for optimal utilization of the system.

ABBREVIATIONS AND DEFINITIONS

GIS Geographic Information System

LIS Land Information System

GPS Global Positioning System

CRGIS Cross River Geographic Information System (GIS project)

CRGIA Cross River Geographic Information Agency (GIS Agency)



1. INTRODUCTION 1.1 HISTORY

Land is the means of life on which our continued existence and progress depends. It is, in one way or another, the basic source of most material wealth. Land as a natural resource plays a major role in the livelihood of people and in the growth of a nation. Access and use of land for agriculture, habitation, wealth generation, employment and recreation is fundamental to civilization. Since land is such a valuable asset in the society and plays central role in preserving the environment and optimum utilization of its resources, there is a growing demand for a better means of securing land rights.

Prior to modern demand for proper protection of ownership, right on land is as old as human existence and families, clans and communities used various methods to represent and preserve right over land until the introduction of various forms of technologies. As knowledge increased, classification was made on land holding through land tenure system.

Land tenure systems in Cross River State are generally broken down into customary and public systems, with the customary tenure more prevalent in rural areas of the state. The public land tenure practice represents an attempt by the Nigerian Government, through the Land Use Act of 1978, to modify land tenure and access for purposes of development. This public land tenure is operational and predominant in the urban areas where individual land rights are common, though negligible in the rural communities. Communal land tenure practices, an aspect of customary land systems, are more common in rural areas with relatively low population density. Under the communal system, land is held under an arrangement that provides for the joint use of the land by all members of the self-defined community. Land is held by these self-defined groups and may include villages, towns, customary groups, religious sects and extended families. A key tenet of the communal system is that land belongs to the community and members of the community cannot be alienated. Another arrangement within the customary tenure arrangement is for family heads to grant land-use rights to community members and to outsiders who make a suitable compensation and are approved by the customary group, however these grants are often not documented and therefore leave the grantee with an unsecured asset. Grants of land made to the individual entitle the grantee, but further allocations or subleases by the grantee are not permitted without the knowledge and agreement of the family head. A distinctive feature of customary tenure arrangement that tends to constrain land information systems and government involvement in land issues is that the traditional rulers manage the land for the entire community. These rulers manage allocation and make decisions regarding the use of communal land. This power to dictate land use brings a degree of political and social power, and any effort to diminish these powers often results in a resistance to the proposed change. The current law guiding land administration in Nigeria is the Land Use Act, cap L.5 2004, originally promulgated in 1978, designed at solving the multiple land tenure systems that existed in the Country. It was intended to usher in land reforms in Nigeria, through comprehensive tackling of four major challenges of land management: lack of uniformity in the laws governing land use and ownership; uncontrolled speculation in urban land; the question of access to land rights by Nigerians on equal basis; and the issue of fragmentation of rural lands arising from application of traditional tenets of inheritance or population growth and increasing land uses which exert tremendous pressure on available land. The Land Use Act of 1978 is Federal Law which binds, and may not be altered by, the Legislature and Governor of Cross River State. According to the law, all land (except federal land) within Cross River State became vested in the Governor as at 29 March 1978. The land so vested is to be held in trust and administered for the common use and benefit



of all Nigerians. The Act goes on to provide for the grant of two types of rights of occupancy – the Statutory Right of Occupancy (SRO) and the Customary Right of Occupancy (CROs). These are exclusive rights of occupancy, for definite terms, and a ground rent is normally payable.

Though the laws were to regulate land administration and protect owners’ rights, the processes were frost with a lot of irregularities as they were manually implemented. This gave rise to need for the automation of land administration utilizing GIS.

1.2 CHALLENGES WITH MANUAL LAND ADMINISTRATION

Before the implementation of the Cross River Geographic Information System (CRGIS), as with virtually all States in Nigeria, the manual approach to land administration that governed the activities of the Ministry of Lands and Housing in Cross River State guaranteed that:

(1) Forgeries of land documents.

(2) Encroachment into right of ways.

(3) Multiple allocations of parcels and overlapping allocations.

(4) Paper based records which wear and tear away easily due to constant handling.

(5) There was no state-wide, coherent and cohesive database on land ownership and usage in the State.

(6) Cadastral maps and records of ownership/rights were not up to date and so did not conform to the ground realities.

(7) Data pertaining to revenues, land use, irrigation, rainfall, crops, temperature, soil type, salinity, etc, did not exist in a comprehensive form that can be called upon for quick reference.

(8) There was no uniformity of fields for the records of rights across the State. Various analyses and modeling that would be possible to be carried out for better and efficient land management could not be done.

(9) Revenue tracking was cumbersome and prone to all sorts of errors of commission and omission, including mis-representations by the landowner.

(10) As with other manual revenue collection processes, only minimal of revenue generated were deposited into the government coffers.

(11) Payments to landowners in the event of land acquisition were not logically determined, processed and implemented.

(12) There was no mechanized process for carrying out projections for crop yields, etc, for various farmlands.

(13) There was no database for disaster management and loss assessment in times of natural calamities like flood, erosion, etc.

(14) There was no mechanized process to arrive at threshold limit to which plot sizes either for personal or commercial use, including agriculture, can be fragmented to, as it is evident from studies that fragmentation beyond a certain point results in diminished productivity.

All the above directly and indirectly gave rise to high revenue shortfall as well as unguided expenditures on the above matter.



2. AUTOMATION OF LAND ADMINISTRATION

Since manual processes were no longer viable options in accurate, efficient and effective land administration, Cross River State initiated the plan for a robust Land Information Management System. It started in the State as early as year 2000 and in year 2001 as the State procured a panchromatic (Black and White) Orthophoto covering the entire State. A colored orthophoto imagery of Calabar (Municipal and South) was also procured in the year 2005.

Attempts at capturing existing land files and data were made but did not provide the robust system required to effectively manage land administration processes. Furthermore the attempts could not effectively utilize the imagery procured by the State.

In order to gain the full benefits of the imagery and as well provide a robust system for land administration process management, the Cross River Geographic Information System (CRGIS) Project was conceived. As is professionally required of projects of this nature, a feasibility and viability study was first carried out and the outcome formed the basis for the project design and definition.

2.1 FEASIBILITY STUDY AND REPORTS Following the approval of the State Executive Council in 2009, Messrs. Telecom Technologies International Limited (TTi Limited) were contracted to carry out a Viability Study for implementing an automated Land Information Management System in the State based on GIS technologies. Geographic Information Systems (GIS) was the emerging and preferred platform for land administration globally and the Ministry of Lands and Housing was not sufficiently resourced to carry out this evaluation of technology and service options based on these emerging technologies – hence the need for a third party consultant.

The study was geared towards ensuring the feasibility of the project and to provide confidence in its viability as a source of value creation to the citizenry and importantly revenue generation to the government. The feasibility and viability analysis was carried out based on data available to the Consultant as provided by the Ministry of Lands and Housing. At the end of the analysis, two (2) reports were submitted as follows:

(a) Main Report - Technical Issues

(b) Financial Viability Analysis

In the analysis and reports, the Consultant made the following projections and recommendations:

(i) The state should initiate a program or project to build a robust Land Information Management System which would be underpinned by three related technologies;

Land Information System (LIS)

Geographic Information System (GIS)

Global Positioning System (GPS )

It is expected that the two databases (Aspatial and Spatial) to be created by LIS and GIS respectively can easily be linked allowing queries to display accurate and matching information. The Project blueprint was further proposed by the Consultant.



(ii) The need to acquire accurate and appropriate spatial data (involving coordinates and location referencing) through the implementation of modern approaches in Survey works utilizing the power of latest Global Positioning Systems (GPS). This is to help in establishing geographic control stations for plannimetric horizontal control that would form the basis for accurate singular survey origin for the State.

(iii) The need to put in place adequate Information Technology Infrastructure, project management and staffing requisite for the realization of the project.

(iv) Business Process Re-Engineering to achieve optimal efficiency, mitigate legal and operational risk, maximize land allocation and acquisition processes and emulate best business practices in modern, automated land management environment;

(v) Put in place adequate and suitable legislative framework for the operations of the automated land management environment;

(vi) Carry out adequate and effective publicity and marketing to bring together all stakeholder and ensure their buy-in;

(vii) Carry out effective capacity building of staff both existing and freshly recruited (job creation) to ensure sustainability of the operations of the environment.

After careful consideration the Government of Cross River State approved the Implementation of the Cross River Geographic Information Systems (CRGIS) Project.

2.2 THE CRGIS PROJECT IMPLEMENTATION 2.2.1 VISION AND OBJECTIVES OF THE PROJECT

The development of Cross River Geographic Information System (CRGIS) was anchored on logic, planning and honest intellectual analysis and implementation of an elegant solution amongst competing alternatives.

The Vision of the Project was to develop a viable and efficient, automated, land information system with aerial map overlay based on GIS-LIS-GPS technologies that is of international standard for Cross River State and manned by indigenes.

The Government of Cross River State had a set of clear objectives when it decided to embark on the deployment of the technologies of Geographic Information Systems for its land administration. These include:

(1) The facilitation of the ease of maintenance and updating of changes which occur in land databases such as changes due to legal issues (e.g. as transfer of ownership, partition, land acquisition by government, lease, agricultural development, natural disasters, etc).

(2) To provide comprehensive infrastructure that will make land records tamper-proof. This should reduce the menace of litigation and social conflicts associated with land disputes.

(3) To provide the required support for implementation of developmental programs for which data about distribution of land holdings is vital.

(4) To facilitate detailed planning for infrastructure as well as environmental development.

(5) To facilitate a variety of standards and ad-hoc queries on land data.

(6) To provide database for agriculture planning.



(7) To enhance the internally generated revenue (IGR) on land-based transactions by blocking the leakages that exist in manually driven system

(8) To increase investor confidence in Cross River State and assist in the accelerated development of the State.

(9) To remove the rigours and hardships associated with land registration exercises – most especially for the rural communities

(10) To establish a fair and equitable platform for the payment of compensation to land owners.

To wane Cross River State from the so-called “feeding bottle federalism” and look inwards towards the sustainable development of the State through business-friendly evolutionary processes.

2.2.2 CRGIS PROJECT DELIVERABLES

In keeping with the objectives of the Cross River State Government, the Cross River State Geographic Information Systems Project will deliver the following to all her customers:

(1) Bankable Certificate of Occupancy and other land ownership instruments. The new Certificate of Occupancy to be issued by the Government of Cross River State shall be tamper proof. Its advanced digital security features should ensure that it cannot be forged and, if at all an attempt is made to fake it; authentication of the validity of the instrument is merely one phone call away.

(2) Certificates of Occupancy and other land ownership instruments shall be processed and issued to successful applicants within 21 days working days. There will be no more waiting for years in order to acquire land instruments – in whatever Local Government Area that you may be interested in.

(3) Heritage land is protected by the simple act of registration with a small fee for rural dwellers. The granting of a land instrument (Certificate of Occupancy, Right of Occupancy, etc) gives the low and medium income earners the same rights and privileges that are presently enjoyed by the wealthy in the society.

(4) Make it easy to assess and pay equitable compensation to land owners in Cross River State in the event of Government acquisition of land for public good.

(5) Ensure that historical data on each plot of land is captured and preserved for posterity.

(6) Offer Town Planners, Agriculturists, Estate Developers, Surveyors, Civil Engineers and other stakeholders the ability to integrate different types of data in a spatial analysis.

(7) Be able to generate new and flexible forms of output such as customized maps, that is, maps tailored to meet user’s specific needs, in digital or analog form, reports, address lists, etc. For example, be able to generate and offer for sale cadastral maps, parcel-based maps, topographic maps, location (street) maps, conflict boundaries maps, etc.

(8) Provide the platform for quick and easy access to large volume of parcel-based and other related spatial data with the aability to select terrain details from the database by areas or themes.

Provide answers to complex geospatial questions and proffer solution to specific land administration problems.



2.2.3 CRGIS PROJECT DELIVERABLES

There were four main segments to the works. The works and achievements are outlined below:

(a) Certification and Re-Certification Workflow Processes:

This was perhaps the most difficult aspect of the work as it entailed changing of age-old methods of doing business in land management and developing workflow processes that will ensure service delivery within the shortest possible time.

In order to achieve these works, the following were carried out:

Procurement, Delivery and Installation of Geographic Information Systems (GIS), Land Registry System (LRS) (Registry and Cashier), Electronic Data Management System (EDMS) and Multi Cadastral (MC) software on development and production systems;

System Design and Customization, staff training on the software usage;

Development and configuration of workflow processes and procedure, structured templates, structured forms and Tariff, Structured Letters, CofO format Design for CofO certification and recertification;

Coordinates and digitizing works for existing survey maps and layouts; and

Indexing and scanning of existing land documents.

Structured Tariff - Prior to this time, existing fee schedules and fees were manually applied; hence Assessment Officers often machinate with the client or arbitrarily issue them based on their disposition. In order to ensure a systematic tariff structure, various parameters where considered in determining fees appropriate for an area and the fees were broken down to the barest minimum to accommodate a wide range of land types. Typically, the entire State is divided into three (3) zones (A, B and C). Zone A was further classified into Cadastral Zones (CadZone) based on the following parameters:

- Settlement Type: Urban or Sub-Urban; - Location or Layout Density: Low density, Medium Density and High Density; - Service Provision: Serviced Area and Partially Serviced Area; - Purpose Clause (Industrial, Commercial, Residential, Agricultural, Open Space/Green

Area, Public Institution Social, and Public Utilities); - Size of the parcel.

This means that to obtain a Certificate of Occupancy, the following criteria determine the amount one pays:

- What is the tenure, private or state? - Where is the land located (Zone A, B or C, if zone A, what cadzone, e.g, Diamond

hills, Esuk Utan etc)? - What is the size of the plot? - What do you intend to use the property for (Industrial, Commercial, etc)?

(b) ICT Infrastructure Procurement and Deployment:

Ideal and state of the art ICT Infrastructure and technology that will anchor the realization of the various processes were specified and procured. The infrastructure



and technology have been functional till date amidst a number of environmental challenges. This work achieved the following:

Procurement of ICT Infrastructure( Servers, Routers, Switches, Desktops, Laptops, printers, scanners, IP Phones and other peripheries), design and installation of the ICT platform needed for the operation of the project;

ICT training for the Staff;

Design and Establishment of Network Connection within CRGIS and between CRGIS and the State Data Centre; and

Development of CRGIA web portal

(c) Geodetic Reference System:

This was aimed at providing technical concept, field survey and calculations for transformation of the existing Cross River State geodetic reference systems into UTM 32N Projection/Minna datum.

A significant aspect of this work was the unification of the geodetic reference systems in Cross River State by mathematical calculation and the transformation of old coordinates into new ones – and for this, seven mathematical transformation parameters were first determined. Adequate survey works were carried out and sufficient first order control points were established. A framework for the establishment of second and third order control points was also developed. Summary of the achievements of this work include:

Procurement of Global Positioning Systems (GPS) equipment for Survey field works and Staff training;

Procurement of Geodetic Reference Software for post-processing, geodetic transformation and calculation and staff training;

Field work for UGN, Triangulation Network and local Grids, Post processing of calculations and transformation parameter analysis; and

Configuration of the transformation parameter ILS MC system

(d) Institution Framework:

This was aimed at performing a baseline study and developing of the legal and institutional framework that is necessary to operate CRGIS as a service agency.

Works were carried out to determine the required adjustments in the laws and business processes of the State occasioned by the introduction of the modern technologies in land administration and geo-spatial services. The works included the research and release of Business Area Analysis Report, Business Process Re-engineering, Legal review, Drafting of legislation for consideration in the State House of Assembly, Agency Creation Bill Report and recommendations for CRGIA creation.

This resulted in a bill for the establishment of the Cross River Geographic Information Agency (CRGIA). The bill was passed and assented to by the former Governor in 2012.

2.3 STATUS OF LAND ADMINSTRATION IN CROSS RIVER STATE 2.3.1 LAND REGISTRY SYSTEM DATABASE: DATA CAPTURE, PURIFICATION

AND UPDATE



The land registry database has been created, populated and is constantly updated. Through the process of indexing, scanning and quality assurance, the text (aspatial) information are input to the system, the whole documents are capture into the system through scanning while the data are quality checked severally to ensure that the content of the electronic copy is in conformity with the physical copy. Today, about 50,000 records have been created.

2.3.2 GIS/MULTICADASTRE DATABASE: SURVEY VERIFICATION, CADASTRAL CREATION AND PARCEL FABRIC CREATION Every land information system has two forms of data- the aspatial and spatial. The land registry system handles the aspatial (text) information while the GIS system handles the spatial. The spatial data has to do with the reference of the plot to its exact location in the world using a coordinate system. For every land document, survey plans contain the information on the location of the plot but before now, each zone carries out survey in the local origins which means that the determination of the accuracy of a survey work is based on the origin. The contractor for the CRGIS project implemented the combination of parameter which gave rise to a program converts from the local origins to Universal Transverse Mercator (UTM). To properly link the spatial and aspatial, all old survey plans were digitized and those surveys that were done in the local origins were transformed to UTM so that all the data are in one format. From the digitized parcels, the cadastral (distribution of interconnected network of land parcels) of the State has been created. It gives the through picture of what is on ground to avoid misleading information and gives a basis for survey verification and correction. Figure 1 Distribution of connected parcels

2.3.3 COFO CERTIFICATION AND RECERTIFICATION The manual process of certificate of occupancy and recertification issuance were structured in workflows and configured during the project as process flow for the issuance of certificate of occupancy and recertification. This has reduced the dependence on paper, reduced response time from years to 21 working days for state plots and 60 days for private plots, it has improved efficiency and service delivery and has also reduced the incidence of errors in CofO issuance. The CofO has various security features to mitigate forgery.



2.3.4 CONSENT APPROVAL AND REGISTRATION

There is now a structured coordinated process for consent approvals and registration title documents. Prior to this, obtaining consents takes years but now, the unnecessary bureaucracy has been broken and consent approval can be obtained in a matter of days.

2.3.5 HISTORIC TRANSACTION SEARCH Property search is essential in land administration as it gives the intending buyer the history of the property. When the administration of land was manual, property search takes months, years and at times, the information is never found but today, in ten seconds, we will be able to give accurate information on any property that is registered with the land registry. Figure 2 Property search result

2.3.6 ALLOCATION OF GOVERNMENT PLOTS Before now, the allocation is done manually and has led to various problems emanating from double allocations, missing allocation list, non-confirmation of payments and many more. With CRGIA, there is a process flow which starts from identification of the land, payment of compensation, parcellation, advert for allocation and the allocation. Payments are tracked and updated real-time.

2.3.7 LAND TRANSACTION FEES PAYMENT



The payment for land transactions is now based on a structured fee schedule which is fair and equitable unlike when the fees were arbitrary. Every payment is now based on the transaction, purpose, location and size of the plot.

2.4 BENEFITS OF CRGIA Though the Agency went live on the 3rd of December, 2012, it was not until July 2013 that proper operations commenced and since then, the Agency has been able to:

(i) Consolidate the Revenue account for all land related transactions thereby, reducing revenue leakages;

(ii) Gradually and steadily increased the annual internally generated revenue through land transactions from 300 Million Naira per annum to 1.84 Billion Naira;

(iii) Introduce zero tolerance to bribery and corruption through:

Installation of bank in its premises which ensures that no staff receives cash for any transactions;

Creation of various online real-time banking systems for quick payment by clients, quick verification of payment and proper audit; and

Dismissal of any staff that is caught in any act of bribery and corruption.

(iv) Increased investors’ confidence in doing business in Cross River State through open, responsive and non-bureaucratic operations and thereby attracted more investors into the State;

(v) Reduce the response time in the processing of CofO from years to 21 working days and consent registration to 30 days;

(vi) Digitized and created platform for maps representing road networks in Cross River State, Rivers and streams, streets and roads in Calabar though on the obsolete imagery with the hope to migrate and obtain the accurate information when the latest imagery is acquired;

(vii) Reduce communal and individual disputes over land as there is now accurate database of all registered land in the State and this can be queried and information received in seconds;

(viii) The poor are now given CofO through the Systematic Land Titling Registration process and hence value is created to their hitherto non-valuable land; and

(ix) Employment is created through the recruitment of Cross River indigenes to work in CRGIA and has also increased the per capital income of the State.

2.5 CHALLENGES 2.5.1 INCOMPLETE GEODETIC REFERENCE SYSTEM AND SURVEY

The Geodetic Reference System sub-project prepared the initial foundation for the updated Cross River Geodetic Reference System based on 1st order geodetic reference points, which are the highest accuracy points within the geodetic system.

In accordance with the systems design, CRGIA should continue the further development of the Geodetic Reference System by surveying and post-field survey calculations of the 2nd and 3rd order geodetic reference points that would become the foundation for the cadastral works of CRGIA. Only after these works would have been done can further LIS



and GIS related works be carried out. The locations of the 2nd and 3rd order points have already been acquired as part of the present implementation contract.

Without these further works the future survey of individual parcels will cause distortions in geometry and areas and create a danger of increasing the number of disputed property objects. Besides, these distortions will increase in case of digitization or transfer of digitized parcels into the Cross River State national coordinate system.

2.5.2 INTERNET CONNECTIVITY

The electronic platform for CRGIA is heavily reliant on internet access for a variety of things including:

(i) Frequent and periodic Systems update of the different Applications being hosted on the servers

(ii) Global connectivity to a variety of stakeholders (iii) Constant download/upload of parts of the databases for different purposes.

Internet connectivity today is being provided via the State Data Centre and this has proved extremely poor and intractable.

2.5.3 IMAGERIES The imageries currently in use are obsolete and in the best cases of land administration computerization, the acquisition of imageries precedes all other works, except the measurement and adjustment of 1st class geodetic points. For CRGIA, the need/desire to generate funds quickly through the CofO re-certification process made the project executor to push this requirement back to Phase 2 of the project. As it is, this is one of the most significant outstanding major sub-projects on which others such as 2nd and 3rd order geodetics works, Maps and map renewals are predicated.

2.5.4 ML&H RE-ENGINEERING Primary or base data for the operations of the CRGIA shall be obtained via various channels of the Ministry of Lands & Housing, especially. Presently the various relevant departments that should interface directly with the CRGIA are still under a manual regime.

The works and processes in these departments require a large amount or re-engineering to meet with the demands of the CRGIA. The success of processes at the CRGIA would largely depend on the success of a seamless handshake with these departments, hence the need for a complete re-engineering for these departments.

2.5.5 NARROW-BAND STAFFING POLICY

The policy behind the initial recruitment where all the staff are from Cross River State reduced the quality of human resources available to CRGIA in terms of capacity and technical know-how.

2.5.6 INCOMPLETE PROJECT There are other remaining components of the automation like the subsequent registration and the portal. There non-completions are affecting the Agency.

3. RECOMMENDATION AND CONCLUSION The resolutions of the challenges itemized above would help the Agency operate optimally while it is evident that the automation of land administration through the application of GIS has brought about tremendous changes to the processes of land management, has increased efficiency and corrected almost all the anomaly created during manual regime.



We are appreciating the power of GIS and beyond land administration; we are not oblivious of its other applications but limited this write-up to land but we must note that we are currently engaging different Ministries, Departments and Agencies for seamless integration and collaboration of data for effective utilization of GIS.

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