Gov. Imoke
From: Diana Okon-Effiong, Calabar
The Cross River Ministry of Lands and Housing recorded an improvement in its revenue profile from N200.6 million generated in 2011 to N1.1 billion in 2012.
This was disclosed Friday in Calabar by the Commissioner, Mr Raphael Uche, at an interactive forum with journalists at the Nigeria Union of Journalist (NUJ).
He said that the revenue was generated through the increasing demand for lands and residential areas in the state.
He however, disclosed that no allocation of state land was made in 2012 due to unavailability of government layouts.
“This means that no revenue was generated under this subhead, we have a total of 1600 applications pending allocation since 2007 when the last allocation was made,’’ he said.
He said that the Cross River Government on 15th April 2009, commissioned an Urban/Regional Consultants to prepare a master plan for Calabar and four other towns.
The towns designated as development areas include; Ugep, Ikom, Ogoja, and Obudu.
According to him, the state Urban/Regional Development Master Plan was 85 per cent completed as work was still on-going.
“Our activities in 2012 included, Re-survey of layout for light industrial park, Akai Efa, Calabar, perimeter and topographic survey of model secondary school, Creek town in Odukpani, and perimeter survey of Crospil Estate,’’ he said.
He said that the ministry had embarked on the demolition of illegal buildings at Ekorinim village, Asuquo Inyang and Jebs road in Calabar metropolis.
He said that the ministry had embarked on scanning of all Federal Housing Estates in Cross River.
According to him the reproduction of a composite plan of landed properties in the Export Processing Zone, Calabar, had been completed.
Uche said that 493 building plans from Calabar Municipality and Calabar South Area Planning Authorities during the period in focus.
He also said that the ministry received 149 applications for issuance of statutory Certificate of Occupancy for private lease, out of which 68 had been recommended to Gov. Liyel Imoke of Cross River for approval.
“The delay in the release of funds from the office of the Accountant-General, perennial electricity power outage, and lack of adequate man-power were few of the challenges facing the ministry,’’ Uche said.
He appealed to the state government to provide vehicles for supervision and field work, and the quick release of funds for the projects.
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