In 2015, the Lagos State Governor, Akinwunmi Ambode approved the release of Electronic Certificates of Occupancy and it has since been officially adopted. Prior to the approval, advertised schedule had been published in several publications.

To collect their C of O, the allottees listed in the schedule were expected to visit the Lands Bureau at the Alausa Secretariat in Ikeja for the collection of their Certificates of Occupancy. The electronic Certificate of Ownership contains a transactional page, which shows all transactions that have taken place on the land. The good thing about this is that it allows you to assess the history of any land in question.

The inability of many landlords and property owners to lay claim to a valid certificate of occupancy led to the introduction of the electronic certificate of occupancy by the state government to aid the rapid issuing of certificate of occupancy (C of O) documents to landlords and property owners.

The electronic certificate of occupancy is globally accepted in accordance with the international standards on land management and administration. The benefit that is associated with the certificate of occupancy documents is however not limited to the previously mentioned advantage due to the fact that it can also be used in applying for numerous credit facilities as far as financial institutions are concerned in addition to being used as a collateral for a lot of things that could be of immense value to the owner.

In a bid to ease the stress of acquiring documents for property bought in Lagos State, the state government introduced the new Electronic Certificate of Occupancy. The current YELLOW paper, Certificate of Occupancy being used in Lagos state will be phased out and replaced by a more secure electronic land title format in line with acceptable international standards on land administration and management.

With the introduction of the E-C of O under the New Lagos State Certificate of Occupancy project, all C of Os currently in circulation might be withdrawn and replaced with the E-C-of-O, which officials say will be genuine and verifiable.

The objective of the project is to establish a fully automated and computerized method for issuing C-of-Os and increase public/investor confidence by instilling integrity in the C-of-Os issued by the state government in ensuring that it has a state-of-the-art security features, to avoid fraudulent practices, also the paper that would be used as physical evidence of possessing the electronic certificate had been specially designed by a world renowned security document company.

The electronic certificate does not in any way render the former yellow version worthless. It remains a very valuable land instrument and can be used as a legitimate document to conduct land and property related transactions until the time when they can be exchanged for the electronic copy of the certificate of ownership.