The News Agency of Nigeria reports that the boot camp was organised as a collaboration between the University of Ibadan, GisKonsult Ltd and other stakeholders in the GIS industry in Nigeria.
The experts emphasized the need for the adoption of cutting edge technology in order to easily access the locations and assess the features of property in Nigeria.
“The use of GIS tools would enable lending agents to know the true owners of property before using the property as collateral for loans’’, they asserted, while encouraging valuers and managers to adopt the GIS technology because is it now the global best practice.
“The problem is that there is no database. The database, which is supposed to exist in the government, is what we are trying to develop as we are trying to introduce electronic property management systems for the Ministry of Lands.
“By the time we are through with it, Ibadan will be fully captured. Then people will have information about any property in the state,” Fabiyi said.
He noted that the technology would thrive on data captured and help to identify fraudsters who may want to hide under any disguise to take loans from banks.
“The bank can go and search for the documents from the database to know the true owner of a property.
“So, when we have a database, it makes it easier for practising surveyors, valuers, property managers, even banks and lending agents, to be able to know the real owners of any property’’, he added.
He stressed that GIS is now the major tool used globally to solve land administration and property management issues and that by the time the GIS database is developed for Nigeria, stakeholders would be able to log unto it.
Fabiyi said that they had so far established three GIS laboratories, fully equipped with all the complementary hardware and software, so that all the property in Ibadan can be registered.
“These include such information on property as the building footprints, the owners of the building, the location of the building and the type of use. Once these are made available, we can manage transactions on property in Ibadan city’’, he explained.
Fabiyi, who is also the GIS Consultant for Ibadan Urban Flood Management Project, challenged the students at the boot camp to proffer solutions that will address problems in their environment.
Mr David Afolayan, the Chief Executive Officer of GIS Konsult, Ibadan, and convener of the Geo-Hackathon boot camp, said the training would empower students to be solutions providers.
“One core aspect we are doing here is Geographic Information Systems (GIS). It is a technology that helps you to understand what is where; it is an integration of the computer software, the hardware, the people and the data for solving problems,” he said.
He stated that knowing the spatial distribution of property located in places, one would be able to identify any property that are within risk areas of flooding, or other environmental conditions or those susceptible to health problems.
Afolayan said GIS would help the government or individuals to plan better, to develop adequate policies that would mitigate problems.
“Part of that solution we are looking at is to create an App that the general public can use to verify information about a property, whether it is at risk, and the kind of risk it is exposed to, and also to know if it is worth acquiring a piece of land or not in that location.
“It will also help property managers to be able to understand where to invest in and watch how their property appreciates over time,” Afolayan said. (NAN)