When will Lagos State free up land held by speculators?

Land, as a major factor of production, plays a big role in the micro and macro-economic trajectories of a country and its subnational.

Lagos State’s administration of the three factors of production namely land, labour and capital has been in an asymmetric scale of attention over the years.

Whilst the state continues to lead in remuneration of its workforce comparative to other states in the federation, signifying her commitment to labour as an important factor of production, the same cannot be said of the state’s commitment to handling its land administration.

The productive use of land and its expansive value chain have become the weakest link in the developmental agenda of Lagos State.

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It ponders an oxymoron for Lagos to lead the pack of states contributing to the burgeoning national debt stock with little or no financial reinvention towards defraying the behemoth.

Lagos ought to have surpassed the stage of self-sustainability in infrastructure financing and began to offer fiscal buffer to other states of the federation if the land tenure system is monitored like labour and capital.

With particular reference to capital, the constitutional requirement to prepare, defend, pass and appropriate annual budgets is an indication of the importance the federating units including Lagos attach to capital as a factor of production.

It is high time Lagos began to adjust the relationship among the three factors of production in order to run an optimum productive ecosystem and vacate the clog in the wheel of economic development.

Lagos State would record a quantum leap in its growth index across all sectors by freeing up land holdings and deploying them to productive use.

A decluttered land administration that guarantees expeditious processing of land titles and ensuring allocated plots are developed within a specified timeframe is sure to discourage land speculation and rejuvenate the built environment.

When leasehold and freehold titles are held in perpetuity without any consequence for not developing, it leaves the city in the lowest rung of the livability index as Lagos has consistently been rated among other cities of the world.

At least 20 per cent of the plots in Lagos are presently not put to any productive use and can be listed for revocation in accordance with extant laws, such can be subject to reallocation or repurchase in the overall public interest.

The Federal Capital Territory (FCT) minister, Ezenwo Nyesom Wike, recently rejected the request by the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) that its revoked plot of land be reversed.

Wike told the just-confirmed Comptroller-General of the NCS, Bashir Adewale Adeniyi, who paid him a courtesy call in Abuja, that the NCS could only be given an opportunity to buy back the plot at its current price.

This denouement if adopted by Lagos State can resuscitate the waning contribution of the real sector to the state’s economy and escalate the multiplayer effects of such on the employment and housing markets.

Bukola Ajosola can be reached via [email protected]