Nigerian Institution of Estate Surveyors and Valuers (NIESV), Kano State branch, has called on governments at both state and local government levels to avail themselves of the revenue available in landed property.

The estate surveyors took this position at a one day workshop held in Kano recently. They noted that failure of the Nigerian government to tap the full resources from real estate through proper taxation has been identified as one of the factors militating against the country’s economic growth.

Speaking at the seminar, branch Kano state chairman of NIESV, Mr. Fred Akinnuoye, said the time is ripe for government to put necessary machinery in motion in order to ensure that it generates the required revenue from landed property, pointing out that the proper usage of tax revenue through provision of infrastructure would boost real estate investment.

He noted with concern that Nigeria is a country blessed with huge resources both natural and manmade on about 728,768 square kilometres of land, comprising farm lands, forest, mineral deposits and sand and desert dunes, “but out of this total land mass, less than three percent is developed, while less than three percent of the developed land is covered with title”.

Akinnuoye further noted that while Nigerian government focuses on oil revenue and other non real estate form of taxes the huge revenue accruable from land and landed property is being neglected.