The Lagos State Ministry of Finance has trained civil servants in the state in the property taxation system application to enhance productivity and increase internally generated revenue from land use charge collections.
The training, which was facilitated by Detamainingu Limited, recently held in Lagos, had the theme “Maximising the Use of LAPTS for Improved Productivity”.
The Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Finance, Lagos State, Mr Hundogan Temitope, said the Lagos State Government had intensified efforts in training its workers with the use of technology in the collection of land use charges.
“Technology is the instrument used to make work faster, accurate and seamless. We need to train our staff on how to use the LAPTS application effectively for their tasks.
“One of the purposes of the application is to identify properties that have not been listed previously. Once the properties are listed, the information will be transferred to the database, to ensure that the Ministry has comprehensive data on all properties within the state,” he stated.
According to the permanent secretary, LAPTS is vital for identifying property locations, and usage, crucial for assessing land use charges, and allows for capturing property photos for dispute resolution.
He mentioned that while there was progress in land use charge performance, it was not where the state wanted it to be.
“The progress we are making is arithmetical, but we want geometric progress,” he declared.
Temitope stated that Lagos State’s internally generated revenue had grown significantly since 2001, from N600m to around N100bn.
“Lagos State has been collecting Land Use Charges for 23 years, with the highest amount reaching N10bn. Yet, there is a high potential for generating up to N1tn if other necessary factors are in place. We can’t afford to be doing the same thing and expect different results. That is why this application is important to help us achieve our revenue target and simplify our operations,” he elucidated.A
Speaking on the importance of the application, which was developed by Detamainingu Limited, the General Manager of the firm, Mr Ladigbolu Ayodeji, mentioned that the training of the sub-consultants and civil servants, who oversee the administration and operations of Land Use Charges in Lagos State on the use of the LAPTS, was crucial.
Ayodeji said, “The LAPTS application will aid the delivery of the bills in all local governments as against using manual methods to deliver bills to residents and it captures and takes coordinates of the buildings and the data generated can also be used for analysis.”
On her part, the Project Manager for Detamainingu and Technical Adviser on Land Use Charge, Mrs Adenike Jolasimi, noted that the application could be used to track customer retention, identify unpaid residents for collection and enhance revenue analysis to support informed decisions by the Ministry of Finance.
