RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN LAND TITLING AND ACCESS TO CREDIT IN LAGOS STATE, NIGERIA

Abstract

The study assessed the relationship between land and access to credit in Lagos State, Nigeria with a with a view to improving land policy decision making. To achieve the aim of the study, the following objectives were addressed; assessment of the level of land titling before and after digitization in Lagos, examination of the relationship between land titling and access to credit; the factors influencing land titling as well as the investigation of the cost effect of time taken to obtain title to land in Lagos. The data for the study were collected through the administration of structured questionnaires on 397, 398 and 400 randomly sampled household heads of residential properties in Ikeja, Kosofe and Eti-Osa Local Government Areas respectively and 24 Commercial Banks in Lagos. Data collected were analysed using both descriptive statistics and inferential statistics. The study revealed that there was no statistical difference in the mean values for the number of applications received and approved before and after digitization. The research further revealed that the relationship between land titling and access to credit is significant with p <0.05. The research also revealed that there is a statistical significant difference in the majority of the factors affecting land titling based on the response of the respondents across the three (3) Local Governments with a significant level of less than 0.05. The research further showed that the independent variable; actual cost of registration was significant at p-value of < .005 in the equation of the effect of time taken to obtain title to land in Lagos. The study therefore concluded that the introduction of Electronic Document Management System (EDMS) has not brought the desired changes in the lands registry, hence, efforts in the effective computerization and digitization of lands registry must be ensured in order to unveil more importance in the use of e-systems; enhance land titling and registration so as to ensure improved number of properties with titles and enhance access to credit.