Nigeria is currently bypassing over $300bn in economic value due to vast tracts of “dead capital”, land assets that remain invisible to the formal financial system.
This revelation stood at the centre of the Geospatial Builders Conference (GBC 2.0), recently convened by TwoNode Technologies. The event brought together over 200 geospatial engineers, policymakers, and surveyors to address a critical bottleneck in the Nigerian economy: the inability to convert physical land into bankable wealth.
The primary challenge, according to experts, is not a lack of resources but a lack of data.
Without a formal identity, land remains a passive asset rather than a tool for leverage.
“Banks do not lend on land. They lean on certainty,” stated Ayokunnu Adesina, Special Adviser, represented by Emmanuel Omotanmi, Director of Survey Coordination, Records and Transaction. Approximately 95 per cent of land in Nigeria exists outside the formal, bankable system. While land ownership is widespread, most assets lack identity, verification, and traceability, making them unusable within credit systems.”
For the industry to bridge this gap, speakers argued that the geospatial sector must move away from fragmented, small-scale operations towards a more corporate, integrated approach.
Also speaking, the convener of the CIO Awards Africa, Abiola Laseinde, said, “There is a need for ‘C-suite thinking’ to transition the industry from fragmented practices into scalable firms capable of unlocking capital at a national level.”
The consensus among participants was that geospatial data should no longer be viewed as a technical niche but as the very bedrock of the nation’s financial and physical infrastructure.
The Managing Director of Icon Geoinformation Services Ltd, Peter Ritchie, during his keynote address, said, “Geospatial data is foundational economic infrastructure, critical for enabling investment, reducing risk, and driving financial inclusion.”
The conference also highlighted how this data crisis extends to transportation. Despite the natural advantages of the region, the reliance on road networks remains disproportionately high due to a lack of integrated planning.
“Over 90 per cent of transportation in Lagos remains road-based, despite waterways covering about 22 per cent of the state’s surface area,” experts revealed during a session on the maritime economy.
The summit concluded with a clear mandate for the Nigerian government and private sector: to unlock the $300bn windfall, the nation must prioritise integrated geospatial frameworks that provide the “certainty” the global financial market demands.
