Land reform remains one of the most underappreciated constraints on Nigeria’s economic transformation. The current legal and administrative framework governing land ownership and use has become a fundamental barrier to investment, agricultural productivity, and urban development. Without addressing the structural obstacles to land acquisition, titling, and transfer, other reform efforts in infrastructure, power, and the digital economy will deliver suboptimal results. Capital cannot be deployed efficiently where land rights are insecure or where transactions are prohibitively costly.
The Economic Logic of Land Reform
The economic case for comprehensive land reform is compelling. Land serves as collateral for credit, a factor of production for agriculture and industry, and a location asset for housing and commerce. Where land rights are unclear, disputed, or excessively costly to formalise, capital remains trapped, investment is deterred, and economic activity is distorted. Nigeria’s Land Use Act of 1978, which vests all land in state governors holding it in trust for citizens, was intended to standardise access across the country. Instead, it has created multiple layers of bureaucratic approval, discretionary allocations, and opportunities for rent-seeking. The result is a system where formal land transactions take years to complete, informal arrangements predominate, and disputes frequently escalate into violent conflicts that claim lives and disrupt livelihoods.
As documented in the SBM Intelligence report Price of a Parcel: An Analysis of Land Disputes and Their Impact on Food Security in Nigeria, the consequences of this dysfunctional system extend far beyond transaction delays. Between October 2019 and January 2026, at least 112 confirmed fatalities resulted from violent land-related incidents across the country. These are not abstract figures but represent farmers, chiefs, councillors, and innocent bystanders whose lives have been sacrificed in a long and bloody argument over the earth beneath their feet.
Fiscal Implications of Dysfunctional Land Markets
From a fiscal perspective, dysfunctional land markets suppress government revenues at every level. Property taxes, capital gains taxes, and transaction levies remain under-collected because the underlying ownership records are incomplete or actively contested. State governments, which under the revised Value-Added Tax sharing formula now receive enhanced allocations, could significantly boost internally generated revenue through systematic land administration reform. Digitisation of land registries, streamlined titling procedures, and alternative dispute resolution mechanisms for boundary conflicts would reduce transaction costs and expand the tax base simultaneously.
Yet the SBM Intelligence survey of 209 market traders and vendors across nine cities reveals a profound crisis of governance that undermines any attempt at revenue mobilisation. Perceived authority effectiveness in resolving land disputes averages just 2.05 out of a weighted total of 4.0 nationally. Only 3.3 percent of respondents rated authorities as “very effective” in resolving land disputes before they turn violent. In Ibadan, 71 percent of traders described authorities as “not very effective.” In Awka, authority effectiveness scored the lowest nationally at 1.73, with nearly 40 percent of respondents having “no experience or opinion” and nearly 22 percent rating authorities as “not effective at all.” This institutional weakness undermines public trust and encourages communities to take matters into their own hands, perpetuating the cycle of violence.
Agricultural Productivity and Food Security
For agriculture, land tenure insecurity discourages long-term investment in soil improvement, irrigation, and tree crops that take years to mature. Farmers without secure rights will not invest in productivity-enhancing inputs, limiting the sector’s potential to drive rural economic growth. The survey data shows that 72.7 percent of traders nationally have direct experience of the impacts of land conflict, ranging from 54.5 percent in the North-East to an astonishing 92.3 percent in the South-West. Supply chain disruptions are most severe in the North-Central zone, anchored by Abuja, which serves as the convergence point for agricultural products from conflict-affected areas across multiple regions.
The SBM Intelligence report documents specific cases that illustrate the human and economic toll. In Niger State in July 2024, a long-standing land dispute between the Katakpa and Elegi communities flared up violently when members of the Katakpa community began farming on land also claimed by Elegi. The confrontation left three people shot and injured, with nearby villages seeing unrest and property destroyed. In Yobe State in August 2025, a clash between residents of Azare and Zango villages resulted in the deaths of two men working on their farmlands. The attack was the culmination of a protracted land dispute between the two communities. These incidents are not isolated; the data reveals a worrying escalation trend, with 2024 seeing 17 recorded incidents and 39 deaths, the highest annual totals in the dataset.
The “Renewed Hope” agenda’s emphasis on food security and agricultural transformation cannot succeed without parallel reforms that give farmers confidence that their investments will not be expropriated. The survey data shows that when asked for the single most effective government intervention, 43.5 percent of traders prioritised improved security on highways and farming communities. This reflects a widespread consensus that physical protection is the prerequisite for all other interventions. Similarly, industrial and housing developers face delays and cost overruns arising from land acquisition uncertainties, raising final prices and reducing affordability.
The Urban Dimension
The urban dimension of the land crisis is equally severe. In Lagos, the SBM Intelligence survey found land security to be the lowest in the nation at 1.54 out of 4.0. Thirty-three percent of respondents reported being “not confident at all” and fearing removal from their market spaces at any time, the highest rate nationally. Not one respondent in Lagos was “very confident” in their tenure security. This is the urban land crisis in microcosm: traders who keep the city’s economy running operate under constant threat of displacement. The policy preference in Lagos reflects this acute need, with 57.1 percent of traders demanding faster and fairer resolution of land ownership cases in court, the highest rate nationally for this option.
A Path Forward
The argument that land reform is a prerequisite for inclusive prosperity aligns with evidence from successful emerging economies. Countries that have streamlined land administration, from Rwanda to Georgia, have seen increases in agricultural investment, expanded access to credit, and reduced land-related conflict. For Nigeria, the path forward requires political will to amend or reinterpret the Land Use Act, invest in modern land registries, and build the institutional capacity for transparent dispute resolution. The SBM Intelligence report offers specific recommendations: immediate security deployment in priority states including Oyo, Kwara, Plateau, Benue, and Nasarawa; a multi-sectoral Middle Belt intervention coordinated across state lines; a national land dispute resolution framework that fast-tracks court cases; and displacement and compensation policies that address the growing population of internally displaced traders.
Without these steps, other economic reforms will continue to face headwinds from the foundational constraint of insecure land rights. The alternative is to continue the cycle documented in the report: long-standing disputes escalating into lethal violence, communities trapped in eye-for-an-eye retaliation, supply chains repeatedly severed, markets destabilised, and the nation’s food security held hostage to unresolved arguments over the earth beneath our feet. The 112 dead, the 209 traders who shared their experiences, and the millions of Nigerians who depend on functioning markets for their daily bread deserve better. The question is whether the nation’s leaders will finally heed the evidence and act.
