Ogun set to restart Homeowners Charter with huge discount

It is good news for home owners and prospective buyers that, after a prolonged period of downtime in the implementation of its Homeowners Charter, the Ogun State government has commenced processes aimed to restart the charter with a promise of better dealing and better service.

The charter which was aimed to lessen the processes and cost of owning homes in the state ran into troubled waters with allegations of corrupt practices in the implementation process such that  many people who applied to the charter have abandoned their applications.

But the government is setting all these aside. A lot of activities are ongoing aimed at restarting the process and government wants people to know that the charter is still on-going. Now, applicants have been assured of huge discount. The governor has pegged approval fees at below N100,000, down from individual assessment that could be anything above N200,000 for a bungalow or four-bedroom flat.

Presently, there are about 20 youth corps members who will be involved in creating awareness on this charter through radio jingles and other aspects of mass communication. More C-of-Os will be rolled out and people will be getting titles for their land and approvals for their building.

To encourage housing development which is one of the five cardinal programmes of the present administration in the state, the government is working seriously to improve its land administration.

The administration, in its first term, set up a commission to enquire into land matters between 2004 and 2011. Several far-reaching decisions were taken and work commenced on correcting what could be the corrected.

Though issues like governor’s consent and certificate of occupancy are probably not as fast as people want them to be yet, the state says it is work in progress, assuring that some of the complaints it gets on land administration are being acted upon.

The targets of its Lands Bureau is to process engineering/mapping and to launch the Geographic Information Systems (GIS). A lot of things have been done on this and one good thing is that the EDMS aspect is up and running which means a lot of documents including C of O and surveys have been uploaded into the system. This also means that when people come and do searches, instead of looking manually through files, they just press the button and that is done.

The state’s target is to create a website where land buyers can access information online and also pay online. When the system is up and running, it will eliminate delays in processing documents and even save cost. People will have access to information and that reduces interface with ministry officials. It will also ease whatever constraints there are at the moment. The reduced human interface will also minimize corruption.