Lagos, June 22, 2016 – The 1st Vice President, Nigerian Institute of Building (NIOB), Mr Kenneth Nduka, on Wednesday urged state governments to make less tedious the processes of obtaining the Certificate of Occupancy (C of O).
Nduka made the plea in an interview with (NAN) in Lagos, he said that it took months to obtain a C of O for a housing project that was time-barred.
According to him, some state governments do not have functional registries for processing the C of O, while others deliberately held the document for months.
He explained that the situation was responsible for the slow delivery of housing in the country.
According to him, housing projects have gestation period and if not completed within the required time, can result in additional structural expenses.
“The difficulty in getting the C of O has become a great challenge to developers,’’ Nduka said.
Nduka said that most abandoned buildings were due to inability of the developer to obtain a C of O for the project.
“Title to land or C of O is a major requirement before anyone can get a loan from the Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria (FMBN) or any other financial institution.
“The difficulty in obtaining this important document makes people not to bother getting the National Housing Fund loan.
“State governments should ensure that they have functional land registries to expedite processing of title documents within a short period,’’ he said.
Nduka said that state governments would benefit from the increased Internally- Generated Revenue (IGR) that would accrue from the exercise.
