(Ecofin Agency) - Addressing the press last December 1, the president of the federation of independent syndicates, surveyors and topographers of Cote d’Ivoire (FESIGT-CI), Yoboué Bodoua Sévérin Arsène, painted quite a gloomy picture of the Ivorian land industry. Most preoccupying topics include the management of the allotment’s regularization, how land developers work and the issuance of a definitive acquisition permit (ACD).

Aiming to “regularise non-approved land allotment after categorizing and correcting them in order to issue land deeds to buyers,” the irregular constructions streamlining operation in the autonomous district of Abidjan launched in 2014 is stagnating. “More than 2 years later, actors of the land industry are blocked given that until a parcel’s allotment plan is approved, the surveyor, the topographer, townships, the sub-prefecture’s domain services, landlords and land developers…cannot sell their properties. They cannot also do so without the ACD which is today the only document that proves land ownership,” FESIGT’s president said.

He blamed administrative slowness for the situation and proposed a number of measures.

“To deal with the situation, FESIGT-CI suggests the increase of the number of expert surveyors to accelerate the regularisation process, and provide regional offices and urbanism and construction sectors corrected and approved allotment plans,” Fraternité Matin says.

In addition to these measures, the official said an order of surveyor-engineers, superior technician surveyors and topographers should be established.

Souha Touré