The Executive Secretary Borno Geographic Information Service (BOGIS), Engr. Adam Bababe, has reaffirmed the Agency’s commitment to improving urban land management and expand access to land titles for low-income urban residents.
He made this known during a courtesy visit by the Chief Executive Officer of the African Cities Research Consortium (ACRC), Professor Diana Mitlin, who led other partners to BOGIS as part of their ongoing collaboration.
The Executive Secretary Engr. 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).
Professor Mitlin, the CEO of African Cities Researchers consortium (ACRC) and a researcher from Manchester University, explained that ACRC is a project under University of Manchester, funded by the Global Development Institution (GDI), that focuses on research-driven urban solutions, particularly in governance and economic development.
She commended BOGIS for its proactive approach and emphasized that land ownership, especially for women, boosts economic empowerment.
SLT Project Coordinator Babagana Hassan stressed the importance of land titles as legal assets that provide security and financial opportunities.
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.
