A university Don, Prof James Ighalo,  has said that Nigeria must reform its land administration system to generate economic activities and development.

He stated this at the opening of the first Annual National Conference organised by School of Geodesy and Land Administration, College of Environmental Studies, Kaduna Polytechnic.

Ighalo, who is the Dean, School of Entrepreneurship and Management Technology, Federal University of Technology, Minna, said a greater part of the country’s land mass was under utilised due to poor policies.

“Only three per cent of land in Nigeria is fully utilised, a lot of people do not have access to land which is one of the major bottle-necks to land value and utilisation,” he said.

He noted that the absence of planning in the utilisation of land resources in the country, had resulted in low economic value for land.

According to him, Nigeria has a total land area of 924,768 square kilometers of which only 20 per cent is urbanised.

Ighalo lamented that most cities in the country had no master plan, adding that this had led to the failure of economic and physical planning policies of government.

He called for the review of Land Use Act, to enhance economic transformation through redistribution of land resources.

The Chairman of the event, who is also the Registrar, Surveyors Council of Nigeria, Mr Winston Ayeni said only three per cent of land in Nigeria has legitimate title.

He noted that 75 per cent of farmers across Nigeria could not access money from banks and international agencies due to absence of land title.

He urged the Presidential Committee on Land Reform to embrace the “systematic land titling method” to enhance the value of land and promote agricultural production.

Also speaking, Dr Terzangwe  Dugeri, a Consultant, said the conference was meant to address the problem of land management in Nigeria.

“Aside oil, land can be a source of revenue generation for the government if properly utilised.”