Borno state government to engage private developers to address housing deficit.

Maiduguri, the Borno state capital has witnessed influx of people in recent years due to the insurgency, thereby overstretching the existing housing infrastructure.

Executive Secretary, Borno Geographic Information Service BOGIS, Alhaji Adam Bababe at a workshop for staff of Agency said, government would no longer create layouts and allocated to individuals.

According to him such practice have been abused in the past, as the land owners have been reluctant to develop it, thereby becoming subject of litigation.

“To avoid that, the layouts that we are coming up with, development partners will come, we give them standard plans, two-bedroom, three bedroom or four bedroom, they will develop and then government will now sign an Memorandum of Understanding on how to disburse the houses to the public at a subsidize rate”.

Alhaji Bababe explained that the retreat which is first of its kind was to train staff on their core mandate and ethics so as to provide the needed services to members of the public.

According to him, the Agency has commenced the deployment of technology in land administration, noting that drones and high precision survey equipment have been purchased to enhance the process
The Executive Secretary remarked that BOGIS has generated over 350 million naira in the first quarter of this year, assuring to meet the revenue target of 1.5 billion naira by end of the year.

He urged people of the state to continue to be patient with the reforms embarked upon by the Agency, as it is meant for the betterment of Borno.

Some of the participants, Manaseh Voa and Salisu Abubakar thanked BOGIS for the training and promised to be more dedicated to their work.