EDOGIS Backs Gov Obaseki’s New Town Devt Plan

Adibe Emenyonu in Benin City

Edo State Geographic Information Service (EDOGIS) has said that it is backing Governor Godwin Obaseki’s new town development plan as it was meant to put the state among the number of developed states in the country.

The Managing Director of EDOGIS, Mrs. Osaro Aihie,  stated this yesterday during a press briefing in Benin City, where she said the agency is also streamlining the activities of middlemen who are representatives to reduce cases of fraud, adding that she has a target of achieving 80 per cent online processing of Certificates of Occupancy (C of O).

“We have increased the number of C of Os we have signed. For instance, since the establishment of the EDOGIS, about 16,000 of CofOs have been signed,” she said, adding that in the past seven months of her assumption of office, 4,000 of such documents have been issued.

According to her, “We are trying to ensure that you can get your C of O within 30 working days if all your papers are complete.

“The first thing about your land is the title because if you don’t have the title documents, you don’t really have land so it is good to get your C of O. 

“We are calling on people to conduct searches to be sure that what they are buying is right. We want to do the new master plan which is what the governor wants right by getting the processes right because if you develop without a title, the Ministry of Physical Planning is not going to give you approval,” Aihie said.

On the operations of the agency, Aihie, a surveyor by profession added: “The middlemen are what we call representatives here, some of them are committing a lot of havoc and we want to streamline that.

“There are a lot of complaints even from our people abroad. So we want to train representatives and we also want to digitise the entire process so that you can do everything about your C of O online because the less contact you have with the people, the less corrupt practices you will get. 

“Though we have a tax officer here that helps to verify the authenticity of the tax clearances they bring before us. We were recently honoured as the best organisaton for ease of land titling. We were selected as the best in the South-south and our online process have been appreciated.”