Leveraging land potentials
The news that Nigeria is now officially in recession is no longer of any interest to anybody. What is of interest, instead, is how the country can manage the recession to ensure that it does not degenerate or worsen to the point of depression.
Like all other Nigerians and also as a responsible private enterprise that mirrors the economy, we are deeply concerned about the situation, more so for its grave implications for governance, commerce, investment, business and livelihood in the country.
For us, this is not time for trading blames or crying over spilt milk. We consider it, instead, time for introspection, visioning and focused action, hence our call on government to return to land and leverage its potential for possible and positive turnaround in the economy.
Land, in our view, is a go-to destination for the country in the present circumstance because, it is the most unique and strategic among other factors of production which include capital, labour and enterprise and it is such that its availability plays a pivotal role in the development of any economy and increase in investment inflow.
Industrialisation, housing development, agriculture, mining, oil exploration and other economic and productive activities that lead to improved standard of living, job creation, economic growth among others are possible only when land is available and harnessed for such purposes.
Out of these possibilities, we identify housing and agriculture as most potential growth sectors that government needs to turn attention to in the efforts at steering the economy out of its present woes.
Housing, particularly, should be a focal point of consideration given its need to solve the social problem of ‘homelessness’ in this country and also for its proven role as a catalyst for rejuvenating an ailing economy like ours through job creation and wealth generation from construction activities.
Again, just two years ago, it was discovered, from the GDP rebasing exercise, that real estate was one of the fastest growing sectors of the economy. It was also discovered to be the six largest sectors and was making approximately 8 percent contribution to the GDP.
It was expected that government would latch on this growth discovery by developing that sector further and making it investment-friendly and attractive. Nothing was or is being done in that regard at the moment. We are therefore, urging the government to dust that discovery now and swing into action.
Though considerable efforts have been made at growing agriculture and agri-business in the country, more needs to be done now than ever before and we see help and lessons for guidance in a recent World Bank Report on ‘How Africa Can Transform Land Tenure, Revolutionise Agriculture, and End Poverty’.
Sub-Saharan Africa which includes Nigeria, the report notes, is home to nearly half of the world’s usable, uncultivated land but so far the continent has not been able to develop these unused tracts estimated at more than 202 million hectares, to dramatically reduce poverty and boost growth, jobs, and shared prosperity.
We are in agreement with another report by the same World Bank on ‘Securing Africa’s Land for Shared Prosperity’ which says that African countries and their communities could effectively grow more food across the region, and transform their development prospects if they can modernize the complex governance procedures that govern land ownership and management over the next decade.
This brings to mind the obnoxious Land Use Act and the Land Tenure System in the country which ve made land a scarce commodity because of the stringent processes involved in land acquisition, registration and approvals for housing, industrialization and sundry economic activities.
Strident calls had been made in the past for the review of these Acts in order to free land in the country for productive activities. We are saying now that, given the present circumstance, no time is earlier than now for that review.
We believe that improving land governance is vital for achieving rapid economic growth and translating it into significantly less poverty and more opportunity, especially for women who make up 70 percent of farmers still locked out of land ownership due to customary laws.
It is pertinent to recall, at this time, that the Federal Government under late Musa Yar’Adua initiated what it called a ‘holistic land reform’ which, regrettably, ended at the middle of no-where. That initiative needs to be revisited now for the sake of the economy.
We salute the recent courageous step taken by the Lagos State government which has now outlawed land-grabbing or the Omonile phenomenon that had, in the past, frustrated a lot of economic ventures in the state. We hope and urge other states to emulate Lagos, while the federal governments should tackle the weak governance and corruption endemic in the land governance system in the country.
And the time for these actions is NOW!