The Oyo State Government, on Saturday, announced that it would regulate the activities of real estate developers in the state.
The state Commissioner for Lands, Housing and Urban Development, Williams Akin-Funmilayo, made this announcement during a meeting with real estate developers, held at the Government Secretariat, Agodi, Ibadan, the state capital.
He said the action was part of efforts to guide against bad eggs among developers, adding that one of the components of the present administration was to ensure urbanization of the state.
Akin-Funmilayo stressed that the government had been duly informed by several victims, who had been duped by some developers.
The commissioner said the government was taking the bull by the horn by registering practitioners, and not letting dubious real estate developers take advantage of its people.
He said: “They cannot be operating in the state without knowing them as a custodian of land in the state, which will equally protect their interest. It is essential for government to know who is who in real estate business in the state, we should work hand-in-hand to achieve same purpose with Govenor Seyi Makinde’s agenda.
“To protect the interest of innocent investors in the state, we have come up with modalities to accredit all real estate developers in the state, in other to have a robust relationship and curb excess of those that have polluted the industry.
“To this end, they will know where we have designated for housing development not all land in the state are meant to be developed for housing estate, we will provide them with the government land information that is needed to be developed even outside Ibadan.
“With this our people in the state cannot be duped and if they have a land to be develop into an housing estate they will apply to the state government and they will be profile properly. This will give our people in the diaspora an hope to come home and invest in the state.” The commissioner added.
In his remarks, one of the developers and representative of Ark View Investment Limited, Peter Olutoyese applauded the laudable initiative, adding, “the advantage of free entry has been abused and the industry has been polluted. So, the regulation will limit the pollution and it will also give credible developers more chance to thrive.”
