… Officials in Gombe to understudy GOGIS land reform model
…hail GOGIS technological advancement, operational excellence
The Kano State Government has sent a delegation to Gombe State to understudy the digital land reform of Governor Muhammadu Inuwa Yahaya, through Gombe Geographic Information Systems.
PERISCOPE NIGERIA reports the visit was hinged on understanding the foundational working design of the agency, its revenue generation mechanism and the implementation of the state master plan in line with land management and development control.
The delegation, led by Dr Dalhatu Aliyu Sani, the Director-General of the Kano Geographic Information Systems comprised key personnel, including the Senior Special Assistant to the Governor on Land, Directors of ICT, Legal, SLTR, and GIS Operations.
While making a statement on the purpose of the study visit and accounting for the genesis of digital land administration in Kano, Sani said, “for us in Kano, it started 2012 but stopped. Later on another government came and they were not ready for it. They thought it wasn’t important, whereas it is important because it can improve your IGR.
“That is why we are here today, because there is a political will from the Governor of Kano, Engineer Abba Kabir Yusuf, who said ‘go to the best places like Gombe, Lagos, Kaduna to ensure that Kano State competes with the global standards.”
After an interactive session led by the State Project Coordinator Muhammad Aminu Abdullahi, and other key Directors and heads of Units in GOGIS, the team was taken on a tour to catch a glimpse of the state-of-the art technological and administrative facilities and operational structure of the agency.
The tour began with the customer care where application and other customer needs are entertained, the archive where files are stored, managed and systematised for onward processing, production office where right of occupancy and digital certificates of occupancy are produced, mapping office where maps are produced, the server room where the digital operation of the agency is being managed, to the administrative office of directors and the Director General.
The members of the delegation interacted with the staff of various offices, asking questions and taking notes while observing the well- established systemic operational design of the agency.
Expressing his astonishment, the Team Lead added that, “the first thing that interested me is the customer care, especially how detached it is from the technical section of the agency. This allows the staff of the customer care to entertain clients without direct engagement with technical staff; and this will tackle compromise and corruption in land administration.”
Further stating the historical place of the visit, “we have been hearing about GOGIS from public in Kano and the Nigeria as a whole. I heard last time that GOGIS were able to to be the best in Nigeria.
“And now we are here and there are many take-home messages- something we see that when we go back to Kano we will be able to copy or translate to the State. So many things, one, the automation system, which is a comprehensive or complete automation whereby even the filing system, the software they use [are digitised]. I am highly impressed,” he added.
The Director SLTR, Mr Habib Sadiq, while commending the sterling leadership of Dr Kabiru Usman Hassan, the DG of GOGIS, also stated that: “One thing that caught my attention is the staff, who are young people that can stay for up to 15 to 20 years. These people can train other people. They are sustainable. But if you’re employing or using someone that is retiring in just 5 years or less than 10 years, it means that they will not be able to even train other people. So this kind of style is a unique style. This is something we have been dreaming of. If we can get something like this in Kano, I think we will make a huge revenue.”
The team was finally taken on a site tour where the newly established integrated Gombe State Mega Park along Kano road and Shongo Gardens layout were visited for the guests to see the practical reform activities of Yahaya’s administration on land under GOGIS.
