Hernando De Soto, Peruvian economist, gave a moving commentary at ESRI UC this year on “Mapping the Invisible,” based on his idea of building cadastral systems in the developing world. He has written a book entitled The Mystery of Capital, which holds to the premise that countries that don’t have land cadastre are poor.

“We are trying to help countries participate in the global economy, and the starting point is property,” claimed De Soto. Two-thirds of the world doesn’t have property law.

So it was with great interest that I noticed this morning’s article by journalist Akinpelu Dada, in Punch, a Nigerian newspaper on the web, that the “Ogun State Government has introduced Geographic Information System-based certificate of occupancy for landowners seeking new titles and for re-certification of existing landed assets in the state.

Developed by the Bureau of Lands and Survey, the agency in charge of land matters in the state, the new GIS-based C-of-O, was approved by the state executive council on September 23.”