Land Information Management System | Digital Dreams Limited

and is one of the major natural resources we need to survive. It serves as the base and platform for everything we do.Though land is a free gift of nature, it is fixed in supply. In other words,the quantity cannot be increased as its demand increases, hence the necessityof developing an efficient and effective management system. Given the pressureon land which is caused by exponential population growth rate, ruralurban-migration and environmental hazards, land information management hasbecome the major concern of every government and policy makers. In 1991, WorldBank (WB) reported that it took one hundred and thirty years (130) for theworld population to rise from one billion to two billion. However, in 2015, itreported that given the growth rate, it will only take 15 years for the worldpopulation to rise from 7.3 billion to 8.5 billion. The recent trend inpopulation expansion has made it crucial to take the issue of land management important.Thus, information on land has become an asset to governments, policy makers,investors and stakeholders.  

What is land information management?

Landinformation management is the process of recording, processing and accessinginformation of a land. Land information management system on the other handimplies the way and manner by which governments, property managers and landdepartments track data, manage documents and relate with stakeholders on landissues. As we earlier noted, land information management system has moved from cadastralto e-cadastral system. The e-cadastral or digital land information managementsystem is a digital or computerized method of managing land information. This digitized land information management system provides easy, accurate, reliableand accessible information management platform through which land informationcould easily be accessed and payments easily made also. It is a web-basedapplication used to keep and retrieve information on lands, buy and sell lands,register

and make payments for property taxes and obtain both financialtransactions and information. It is a land information management system thatholds a single repository of all the lands and land related information,provided to aid data keepers and users create, store, update, view, retrieve, analyses,manage and publish land information. It further incorporate capturing, organizing,integrating and distributing land information in digital form. The central goalof land information management system is applying information, human andtechnical resources to achieve an effective land decision making by offering agood land information.

Severalland information management systems solution have been implemented by differentgovernments over the years. For instance, countries like Kenya, Uganda, Namibia,Nigeria etc have introduced the digital land information management system foreffective and efficient land administration and management.

Problems of the manual landinformation management system

Beforethe digitization of land information management system in Nigeria, there werechallenges of inefficiency and in effectiveness on land administration andinformation management due to the analogue system of gathering, recording andaccessing of land information..

Nyongesasaid that prior to the development of land information management system(LIMS),theprocess of managing and administering land information has been paper basedmanual system and that the volume of records generated by land managementinstitutions   over the years made itdifficult and almost impossible to refer to them or retrieve them when the needarises.

Themanual method brought about cases of land fraud, land document forgery,document laundering, delayed and unattended application. There were cases of multipleallocation from different land ministry, mismatches in land use, trespass,illegal encroachment, insufficient revenue generation and collection, delay inissuing and processing land transactions etc.

Insome cases the paper-based system of land information management made somebuildings to either be without document or with duplicated document

which madeit difficult and almost impossible to ascertain the real owners of thoseproperties or collect the supposed revenue from the property owners.

Furthermore,records kept by the land survey department most often conflict with the onekept by the urban planning authority. There were no proper documents to show realproperty owners which also made it difficult to prosecute land cases.

Therewere also cases of shifting or illegal adjustment of boundaries usually bydubious owners to increase the size of their land. Tracking land revenue andaccessing land information was very difficult as there were not much availabledata and even the existing ones were either mutilated or prone to damage.

Inother words, data could easily be lost whenever there is fire outbreak or flooddisaster. And just as Emeasoba in his article Towards a proactive public landmanagement in Nigeria? pointed, bad and poor land management system would havean attendant effect on the socio-economic development of a nation.

Thiswas why government engaged in developing and implementing a land informationmanagement system that can bring solution to the problems. Efforts ofgovernments and land management institutions were then geared towards computerizingland administration and information management, hence, the invention of thedigital system of land information management in Nigeria and the manual systemof land information management was replaced with the e-cadastral system.