I CAN GENERATE #2BILLION FOR MPPUD, CANCEL CofO AS PREREQUISITE FOR DEVELOPMENT PERMIT – TPL OSUNSANMI

In a radio program “Your Neighbourhood and You”, a program sponsored by Sustainable Design Consult, play a host to Tpl. Osunsanmi Gbolabo, FNITP. He is a fellow of the Nigeria Institute of Town Planners, a native of Okeluse in Ose Local Government of Ondo state, an environmentalist and a former National Secretary of the Nigerian Institute of Town Planners.

Responding to series of questions on development permit, Tpl. Osunsanmi Gbolabo was particularly on top form discussing the recent government decision to introduce Certificate of Occupancy as part of the requirement to get development permit. He said “to be fair to the government, we can understand where they are coming from but the truth of the matter is that the consultation necessary before that proposed condition is implemented is not enough because for government owned estate, it is desirable but for private individuals and private land which by all standard is more than 60-70% of the land in Ondo state, is an additional burden.

It is an additional burden because by last year the ministry implemented that it is mandatory to produce tax clearance before you can get approval of the Ministry of Physical Planning and Urban Development. On the 1st of March 2022, the same Ministry in a circular sent to the public reviewed upward the assessment fees for all applications in the Ministry which was very high, the same Ministry in October 2022, introduced compulsory submission of Certificate of Occupancy before getting approval. This is burdensome and becoming additional cost for developers and even the individuals. The truth of the matter is that, even the CofO we are talking about, the duration of getting it will negate the principle of ease of getting approval as applicable and practiced in neighboring states.”

“Now, let us use HOCOS as an example because they are giving 60 days to get your CofO. The meaning is that, the logistics involved to get your papers in, and to go and visit, will take 21 days and additional 7 days to review your paper. So, minimum of 30 days. This is cumbersome. I think the government needs to have a rethink about this in the interest of everybody. It is an additional cost. The minimum to get Tax Clearance is #170,000 in Ondo state. The same Ministry is implementing upward review of assessment fees, for a typical plan, you won’t pay less than #85,000. Same Ministry wants you to get CofO which is just a title to your property. It is desirable for those who wants to go to the bank to borrow money but to make it a prerequisite is not well thought off.”

On the consequences of people who are constructing without development permit, he made it clear that there is no ignorance in law. He said “Once a law or regulations are made, it is duty bound for you to comply and that is why we are making an appeal to the government to take another look at this directive. If we have a very good and sound enforcement unit and well-funded with personnel, there won’t be a problem.”

Tpl. Ogunseyi Ayodele, who is the sponsor of the program, asked “as a registered town planner and an environmentalist, assuming you are the commissioner of physical planning today, what would you have done differently and how do you intend to go about it?”

Tpl Osunsanmi Gbolabo wasted no time in making it cleared what he can bring to the table. He said “well, I will apply my professionalism to solve this problem and I want to tell you that within a year, I will generate 2 BILLION Naira for the Ministry of Physical Planning and Urban Development and I will do this without putting burden on the people of Ondo state. The Ministry is statutorily empowered to ensure that we all have approved plans but either because of negligence or because of years of not doing the right thing, those that are having approved plans in the state are less than 30% of the entire population. I am talking about thousands and thousands of building that are existing and people are staying there 10-15 years without approved plan. What I will do is to capture everybody and ensure they have building plans.”

“How do I go about this? I suggested this before, I will declare a housing amnesty for 9 months. Under the 9 months, I will call on everybody in Ondo state to come forward, whether you have stayed in your house for 25 or 30 years it does not matter, bring something to show that you are in that house. When you bring it, a group of Town Planners, Architect will be organized within the Ministry who will help to put it in a professionally acceptable design and this will be approved at a cost that’s less than the current charge. When 20,000 or 50,000 people in Akure alone are paying just 40,000 Naira to get their plan, design and everything approved, within those 9 months of amnesty. It is better than having just 1,000 people coming forward to pay #170,000, it’s as simple as that. You can do the arithmetic yourself, there are over 40,000 structures in Akure that are not having development permit, they will jump into this amnesty, pay 10,000 administration fee and pay the 40,000 later then we will give you a design if you don’t have one, if you have a design, you bring it and we will assess it then give you approval. By that, we would have taken the data of that structure and know the GPS location. We can from the comfort of our office say that in Akure, we have 50,000 housing units and out of it, 10,000 of them are commercial building then we can do other arithmetic on them later but when you don’t even have them or they are not within the net of the government then you continue to lose revenue. That’s what I will do differently.”

When quizzed about the lack of manpower by the Ministry to effectively control development and how to put an end to it, Tpl. Osunsanmi said “if I am telling you that government is not having problems with finances, I will be deceiving myself, so finance is actually the reasons that government will give at all times to say that we cannot do this or that but you must invest before you can get profit and in that, 2 levels can be abducted. First level is that you have to appoint middle level professionals, people with ND or HND holders, they are in town looking for jobs, Town planners, Architects, bring them in. then there is going to be another level of what we call volunteers but they are going to be remunerated, those ones will go to the interiors, mark the house, take data of the landlord, how many years they’ve staying there, their level of income, all these will be captured and brought over. From that, government will start understanding the economics of people of his state and then plan for them.”

With this amnesty, government would have gathered money. If 2 billion is made, 10% is given back to that Ministry. They will use it to fund personnel, infrastructure, utilities, vehicles and so on which will continually now be used to monitor developments.

When further asked if the amnesty he is proposing will waive tax clearance certificate and Certificate of Occupancy, he said “it’s an amnesty, it will be waived for the first 9 months. After the 9 months, just like VADE, when the time of the amnesty is over, you’re on your own. We will now go after you because we would have gotten enough money from those that came for amnesty to get personnel, vehicles and the likes.”