EDWIN OKOSUN

ARC/08/4019

DEPARTMENT OF ARCHITECTURE

FEDERAL UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY, AKURE

ARC 807 PROFESSIONAL PRACTICE AND PROCEDURE

ASSIGNMENT TITLE: BUILDING CONSTRUCTION DOCUMENTATION

REQUIRED FOR PROJECT APPROVAL IN NIGERIA

There are laid down processes which are expected to be followed when applying for building

plan approval through government agencies and authorities. These offices in Lagos for

instance where empowered by law no 29 of 14 – 10 – 2005 which is a law to provide for the

administration of Physical Planning, Urban and Regional Department in Lagos. These

agencies in Lagos state and other similarly domesticated agencies in other states on the

Nigerian federation bear the power to grant building permit for any physical development

proposed within the geographic premises of the state within which the land is found. The

development permit departments comprise of the district offices as well as the local planning

authorities for the discharge of their primary responsibilities; which is to forestall normalcy in

the way houses are built by setting out reasonable regulations to bring about a sanitised

environment. In achieving these feats, certain documents are required from the clients or the

client’s representatives as basic formalities and majorly record purposes in the instance of

dispute resolution and compensation by the government in the occasion of an overriding

public interest. More light will be shed on this document as we progress on the discussion

below. In Lagos state for instance, the ministry of physical planning and urban development

operates with such agencies or authorities as the Lagos State Physical Planning and

Development Authority (LASPPDA) who coordinates the activities of the collaborative

operation of the district office (DO) and the development permit department (DPD); which

also has in their hierarch, the local Planning Authorities (LPA) and the Physical Development

and Monitoring Departments (PDMD).

The land use act of 1978 hands all authority directly associated with land to the seating

governor of the state where this land exists. This is where there is a campaign for obtaining

development permits from the relevant authorities is based. Obtaining development permits

from relevant authorities is the link to make up an integral part of the construction process.

Perhaps, because Nigeria is still a developing nation based on her current economy, therefore,

people tend to adopt a common practice of securing a piece of land and commencing

construction work almost immediately on it overlooking the government agencies due to

ignorance or sheer reluctance to abide by the law. Some bear in mind that the bottle necks in

securing building plan approvals are too demanding financially and prefer to direct available

funds to the construction proper. In many occasions, it becomes a cases of “penny wise

pound foolish” when the wrath of the government catches up with such people and the

penalty is now worth four times (4x) the processing fee they would have paid if they had

adhered to the law of the land. Shamefully, corporate bodies, companies as well as

conglomerates make the same mistakes of not including in the cost planning estimates, the

cost of seeking development permit approval to the cost required to see the project off to

completion and handing over.

Albeit, the following steps have been identified as appropriate in rightfully applying for

building plan approval in simple residential developments;

1. After the full ownership of the land has been resolved either by purchase, transfer or

inheritance, and you have commissioned an architect, or designer as the Nigerian

building code suggests, you should visit the local planning authority within whose

jurisdiction your land is located with a copy of the architectural drawing with

emphasis on the site plan, floor plans and section for vetting by the principal technical

officer who by training should include an apt understanding of spatial relationships

and space sub-division as an architect as well as also having a full understanding of

the basic rules on setbacks, height restrictions and floor area that can be developed

within any site, within the scope of the jurisdiction of the office. This step is targeted

to verify the conformity of the design to the approval standards and order of

development that the jurisdiction has defined with a view to eliminating wastage of

funds for the production of five copies of the design which might have to be

corrected. Once the principal technical officer indicates conformity of the design to

basic standards, you can authorise your architect or designer to further produce the

remaining duplicate copies.

2. As a sequel to completing stage one, you will then request for an assessment fee for

the proposed design from the principal technical officer who will employ some

mathematical indices based on the acceptable standards of the jurisdiction to come up

with a summarised figure required to be paid to specified banks and the tellers are

used to obtain receipts from the account section of the office. The mathematical

indices are based on the area the building occupied multiplied by the height of the

proposed building and then multiplied again by a rate with which the jurisdiction used

in controlling development within her scope. Rates differ from local planning

authority to the other; for instance, Igbogbo / Baiyeku and Ijede local planning

authority use a baseline rate of 20 in calculating processing fess while Eti-osa local

planning authority use a baseline rate of 120 in calculating same processing fee in the

same Lagos. The rate is just an attempt to control development permit in the area.

The processing fee is now added to a local government fee which is usually 10% of

the calculated processing fee plus a development levy based on the jurisdictions

baseline which is set out according to the size of the design.

Length x Breath x Height x Rate

Plus Development levy

Plus 10% Local Government fee

3. This step is usually demanded prior to the submission of the development permit

application. A first site inspection is to be carried out on the expense of the client who

will take an officer of the authority to his site to ascertain precisely the correlation

between the survey plan and the real life situation on the site, confirm the beacon

numbers, see if there is accessibility to the site and measure if considered fit to check

the dimensions are the same as the survey plan. Other information the officer looks

out to see are the nature of the slope on the site, natural features as well as physical

features, the texture of the soil and if the client has started any construction work on

the site. He will also use a rule of thumb based on the types of plant life available to

know if the area is water logged, or swampy. At the end of the inspection, the officer

proceeds to sketching what he has seen on site, and preparing a site inspection report

which will form part of the documentation when the application is submitted for

processing of approval.

4. The client or client representative submits d complete architectural drawings and any

other necessary drawing together with some listed documents for the real processing

phase of the approval process. These documents include the survey plan, tax clearance

certificate, proof of ownership or deed (inclusive of governors consent document in

the event of lands acquired after 1978), payment receipts of processing fees, land

information document if available, etc. A file is endorsed for registration by the

district officer or chief executive officer and registered by the clerical officer who

assigns the file number and receives all sheets of the drawings submitted. This is

subject to the submission of all necessary required documents listed above after which

the file is sent to the field officer to attach his site sketch and report. The file is then

sent to the charting department to ascertain if the land is in freehold or within

government acquisition, industrial land, agricultural land, water catchment, green

zone, etc. Report of the charting officer is then acted upon by the CEO or the district

officer after which the design is sent to the engineering department for structural

vetting. If the engineers recommendation is found satisfactory, the recommending

officer is left with no choice but to apply recommendation stamp and append his/her

signature on every sheet of the architectural drawings. Meanwhile, all the movement

of the files to the various departments would have been registered in the movement

register book.

DOCUMENTS REQUIRED FOR PROJECT APPROVAL IN NIGERIA

1. Sets of relevant drawings (architectural, electrical, and structural)

2. Survey plan with proof of consent to survey government acquisition land

3. Proof of ownership of land (with governors consent document where necessary)

4. Evidence of payments of approval fees

5. Tax clearance certificates

1. Sets of Relevant Drawings (Architectural, Electrical, and Structural)

This is perhaps the most important document when applying for building plan approval

because it contains the ideal information for which application is sought. The architectural

drawings provide the evidence of spatial consideration used by the architect or designer to

provide the spaces requested by the client. The spaces are expected to flow into each other

and be compatible. As much as possible, the spaces should be ordered such that the interior

micro climate of the spaces are thermally comfortable by providing cross ventilation where

possible and paying attention to the location of rooms with respect to the cardinal points. He

also checks to see the conformity of the design to basic regulations of offsets from the

property line which is expected to be 3meters from property line and 6meters from the road.

These are some of the information that the vetting officer will check when the he inspects the

drawing in plan, section and elevation. It is expected that only about 60% of the land should

be developed, the remaining 40% provide air spaces, and circulation.

Fig 1: one of the sheets of a set of architectural drawing showing a site plan of a simple residential design

2. Survey Plan With Proof Of Consent To Survey Government Acquisition Land

This is a document that shows the accurately determined terrestrial position of points,

distances and angles between them. It is used to establish land maps and boundaries for

ownership or governmental purposes. Land survey plan documents in Nigeria are usually

produced by professional and registered survey where the blue copy is handed to the client

and the red copy is sent to the office of the surveyor general for documentation. A valid

survey plan document will have the following information:

a. Name, seal and registration number of the surveyor

b. Name of the property owner

c. Date the survey was carried out

d. Address of the plot

e. Area and size of the land

f. Scale of the survey

g. Orientation (usually UTM zone 31)

(a)

(b)

(a), (b), (c) showing survey plan

3. Proof Of Ownership Of Land (With Governors Consent Document Where

Necessary)

This is a form of receipt or deed of agreement with which the land owner claims the property.

Land can be transferred, out-rightly bought or inherited. However the case, a document is

usually signed by the family whom has agreed to sell or transfer the land. The land use act of

1978 transfers all power of ownership to the seating governor of the state who decides the

direction of development in the state. To that effect, any land acquired after 1978, will require

a governors consent document for the ownership claim to be recognised.

4. Evidence Of Payments Of Approval Fee

After the processing fee would have been prepared by the clerical staff, and the payments

made, the client or client representative is expected to advance to the accounting department

to convert all tellers obtained from banks into treasury receipts which is the only acceptable

document recognised by the development permit departments. These receipts are in three

different categories; the treasury receipt for the payment of the processing fee, the receipts for

payment of the 10% LGA and development levy.

5. Tax Clearance Certificates

This is an evidence of responsibility to the government. A tax clearance certificate is always

requested when an application for building plan approval is embarked on. In recent times, the

tax clearance certificate is electronically driven and only a photocopy of the document is

required as an essential document to be presented to the clerical officer.