Dennis Isong: What Is Excision Land and Is It Safe to Buy in Nigeria?

Dennis Isong: What Is Excision Land and Is It Safe to Buy in Nigeria?

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Under the Land Use Act of 1978, all land in Nigeria technically belongs to the government. The government holds land in trust for the people, and what individuals own is actually the right to use that land, formally granted through documents like a Certificate of Occupancy (C of O).
However, before the Land Use Act came into force, and even long before Nigeria gained independence, many communities and families owned land through what is called customary land tenure. These were lands that belonged to indigenous communities, passed down from generation to generation through their own traditional systems of ownership. The government recognised that these people had a prior claim to their land, but under the Land Use Act, the government technically took over administration of all land.
To address this, a legal process called excision was created. Excision is essentially the government’s way of formally giving back or carving out a portion of government-acquired land and returning it to a community or family that previously owned it. When land is excised, that community receives official recognition that the government has released that parcel of land from its general acquisition and acknowledged the community’s right to it.
So when you hear the phrase “excision land,” it refers to land that has been officially released by the government to a particular community, usually a village or family group, through the formal excision process. The land is no longer under full government acquisition. The community can then sell parcels of it to private individuals or developers, and those buyers can proceed to process their own titles to the land.
What makes this nuanced is the word officially. Not all communities that claim excision have actually gone through the proper process. Some will tell you the land has been excised when in reality it is still pending or has not been processed at all. For instance, the Lagos State Government Gazette is the official document that confirms excision. If a piece of land has been excised and the excision published in the Gazette, it means the government has formally recognised it. If you cannot verify the Gazette entry, then the excision claim may not hold up.
Chukwuemeka, a Nigerian man living in the UK, had been sending money home for years to eventually own land in Lagos. He had watched the prices go up year after year and knew that if he waited too long, what used to cost two million naira would soon cost ten million. So in 2019, he reached out to a friend who connected him to a local agent in Ibeju-Lekki.
The agent showed him a plot for four million naira. It was in an area that was seeing a lot of development activity. The agent assured him that the land had been excised and that the community had been given approval to sell. He even showed Chukwuemeka something that looked like a Gazette document. Chukwuemeka was not a property expert, and he trusted the agent. He transferred the money, got a receipt and a community-issued document, and went back to his life in the UK feeling like a Lagos landowner.
Two years later, he got a call from a family member who went to check on the land. There was a government signboard on the plot. The land had not been properly excised after all, and the government was reclaiming it for a road infrastructure project. The documents he was given turned out to be unofficial. His four million naira was gone, and the agent was nowhere to be found.
There are different tiers of documentation that make a land valid to buy. At the top is land with a Certificate of Occupancy, commonly called a C of O. This is the gold standard of land documentation. A C of O is issued directly by the state government and gives the holder a 99-year leasehold on the land. When you have a C of O, your ownership is about as solid as it gets under Nigerian law. Banks accept it as collateral, and it is difficult for anyone to challenge your right to that land.
Next is the Governor’s Consent. This comes into play when a piece of land that already has a C of O is sold from one person to another. The new owner needs to apply to the state government for the Governor’s Consent to be registered as the new owner on that title. Without it, the transaction, though valid between buyer and seller, is not officially recognised by the government. Then you have the Deed of Assignment, which is the document that transfers ownership of land from a seller to a buyer. On its own, a Deed of Assignment is important but incomplete. It needs to be stamped and registered with the appropriate government office to hold full legal weight.
Below that, you have excision land. In terms of documentation strength, excision land falls in the middle. It is better than land that has no formal government recognition at all, but it is not quite as airtight as a C of O unless additional steps have been taken to formalise it further.
Even lower on the ladder is what is called family land or community land, which has no excision or documentation. These are lands sold purely based on traditional ownership claims, with no government documentation to back them up. Buying such land is among the riskiest things you can do in real estate.
Therefore, if the excision has been properly completed and published in the Gazette, it is relatively secure. It gives the buyer a foundation to work from and a path toward getting more formal documentation. The risk is when someone sells land with an unverified or incomplete excision claim.
The first and most important thing is to engage a qualified property lawyer before you make any payment when purchasing land. This is not a step to skip or postpone. A property lawyer who is familiar with Lagos land law will conduct what is called a title search, which involves going to the Land Registry to verify the status of the land and confirm that it is what the seller claims it to be. This search will reveal whether there are any government acquisitions on the land, any existing mortgages or liens, or any competing claims.
Next, you need a licensed surveyor to prepare or verify the survey plan of the property. A survey plan drawn by a registered surveyor and charted at the Surveyor General’s office will confirm whether the land is free from government acquisition and falls within the excised area. This is a critical step because the physical location of the land must match what is recorded on paper.
After that, work with your lawyer to draft a proper Deed of Assignment that clearly captures all the details of the transaction, the parties involved, the land description, the agreed price, and the warranties being made by the seller. This document should be stamped at the relevant government office and then registered. Registration creates a public record of your ownership and makes it harder for anyone to challenge your title later.
Once all this is in place, you can begin the process of applying for a Certificate of Occupancy if you wish to upgrade your title to the highest level. This process takes time and involves fees, but it ultimately gives you the most recognised form of land ownership in Lagos.
Be cautious of sellers who pressure you to pay quickly before due diligence can be completed. Be wary of prices that seem dramatically below the market rate for a given area, as this often indicates a problem with the title. Avoid situations where multiple agents or individuals claim the authority to sell the same plot. And never pay the full purchase price before documentation has been verified and the deed properly executed.
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