Ease of Doing Business: EDOGIS MD warns against cash-based transactions in processing documents

As landowners troop to the premises of the Edo State Geographic Information Service (EDOGIS) to process their documents in the wake of Governor Godwin Obaseki's reform in land administration, Managing Director of the agency, Arch. Frank Evbuomwan, has warned against paying cash to any EDOGIS staff for acquiring the document and titles, as the process has been fully automated.

Evbuomwan, who disclosed this in a chat with journalists, said that any staff of the agency found demanding or collecting cash from landowners to process their documents risks instant sack. The agency is responsible for the issuance of Certificates of Occupancy, Governor's Consent, Mortgage Consent, Lodgment of Surveys, among others.

He said, "We have a fully automated system, such that no one would have to make any cash-based transaction when they come to our office. Hence, after the amount for processing documents has been calculated on our system, payment is made without having to part with cash on our premises.

"We believe this reduces the incidence of corruption in the system. We are very determined to sustain this. And we have trained our staff to be at their best when they attend to landowners who come to process their papers. Any of them found collecting cash from our customers risk instant sack. This policy is in line with the Governor's stance on transparency and accountability."

He assured landowners of quality service when they come to the agency's premises to process their documents, noting that it is now mandatory to convert all old Certificate-of-Occupancy (C-of-O) to a digital version to guard against duplication, fake documents.

He said EDOGIS is deploying an efficient mapping technology in its operations, calling on Edo people to take advantage of the opportunities provided by the agency to obtain necessary land documents.

According to him, "EDOGIS is a successor agency of the defunct Ministry of Lands and Survey. We are here to serve the people and to provide them with efficient services. As a customer-focused agency, we are implementing the Governor Godwin Obaseki-led administration's key reforms in land administration.

"Following the governor's directive for a drastic reduction in the cost of processing land documents, we are implementing this directive vigorously. For instance, the cost of processing C-of-O for land has been reduced to a minimum of N50,000, depending on the location of the land."