LEGAL, ADMINISTRATIVE AND SOCIO-ECONOMIC CHALLENGES IN REGULATION OF LAND USE RIGHT IN NIGERIA

Abstract

It is an axiomatic fact that the ever increasing population in urban areas in Nigeria has negatively impacted on land space and invariably, land use rights. Increase by way of population growth and routine migration to urban areas has continued to exert population pressure, and impacts negatively on socio-economic growth involving transfer of land use rights. Land use right has a sharp increase tendency in Nigerian cities, affecting the methods of land use rights as well as the management and regulation of land, which has always been at the core of national development, urban planning, real estate development, and environmental management. Against this backdrop, the authors argued the need for the regulation of the transfer of land use right in order to harvest the concomitant economic developments. The paper maintained that government has paid great attention to management and regulation of land through series of legislations and regulations, right from colonial times with the aim of achieving maximum use and regulation of land space through granting access to use of land, which for instance, promoted initiatives aimed at increased transparency, a clear legal framework and competent institutions to ensure maximum benefit to the people, in the grant of land use right, including the subsisting Land Use Act 1978.