Growth and Employment in States (GEMS)

Project Narrative

GEMS3 worked with private and public stakeholders at national, state and local government levels to build and deliver a systemic framework that helped make it easier to do business in Nigeria, leading to lasting improvements in economic opportunities for the poor, especially women. The overarching goal of the project was to improve the business environment in order to increase employment and economic growth and thus GEMS3 was targeting the improvement of land, tax and investment systems in a number of ‘focal’ states.

The goal of the proposed intervention was to raise the supply of securely titled land in pilot States by regularizing and bringing a substantial number of informally held properties within the realm of the land rights’ statutory system, thus offering right-holders – in particular the women and the poor – with a higher degree of protection and enforcement.

Key services provided

LEI supported project implementation by Adam Smith International (ASI) of the UK Department for International Development / World Bank funded Growth and Employment in States (GEMS) – Consulting Services to Support Improved Business Regulation, GEMS3 Project.

LEI  supported ASI efforts through our experience in developing land registration systems to deliver a comprehensive Systematic Land Tenure Regularization training component for the pilot phase of this GEMS3 initiative. In addition we provided assistance to Nigeria’s Presidential Technical Committee on Land Reform (PTCLR) to review necessary laws, provide advice on strategic interventions and approaches to mediation, adjudication and survey techniques.

In-country LEI  closely facilitated the pilot efforts in various Nigerian states, including Kano, Kaduna, Ondo, and future expansion areas. LEI were involved in the delivery of sensitisation and focus group meetings to over 500 stakeholders in the pilot states of Kano and Ondo as well as providing training to over 70 government officials to be future project field staff. The training sessions yielded very positive feedback, with lively and active participation.  LEI continued to support ASI in Systematic Land Tenure Regularisation activities helping GEMS3 to achieve a target of 5,000 registrations in each pilot area, as well as providing technical input to facilitate the scale up of registration activities to other states.