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BUILDING APPROVAL PROCESS IN LAGOS

Obtaining development permit from the relevant authority is an integral part of the construction process. It¶s

common to see people buy a piece of land and start building almost immediately, so long as the funds are available,

without giving much thought to obtaining building plan approval. In some instances even companies andconglomerates when embarking on large construction works, don¶t factor the cost of obtaining permit as part of 

construction cost. In Lagos for instance it is safe to assume that over 75% of the construction work going on around

the state is illegal, while over 60% of the existing buildings are illegal. By illegal I mean such structures don¶t have

development permit or building plan approval. Even those that have but have built contrary to the approval are also

illegal. Most people that are interested in property development don¶t seem to attach importance to the approval

process, or some just assume that the process is very tedious and cumbersome. This is not so as the Lagos State

Government has since made it very easy and straight forward. Although more can still be done, but in comparison towhat was obtainable before 1998, things are definitely much better. The very first thing to do when you want to start

construction work should be to obtain Development Permit from the Lagos State Government. The office

responsible for granting development permit is the Lagos State Physical Planning and Development Authority

(LASPPDA), a parastatal under the Ministry of Physical Planning and Urban Development (MPP&UD). TheAuthority is empowered by Law no 09 of 14-10-2005, which is a law to provide for the administration of Physical

Planning, Urban and Regional Development in Lagos. 

There are basically two offices charged by the Authority to grant development permits: they are the District Officesheaded by District Officers and the Local Planning Authorities headed by the Chief Executive Officers. Both offices

are under the control of the General Manager of the Lagos State Physical Planning and Development Authority.

There are 20 district offices and 27 local planning offices around Lagos. The functions of both offices are basically

the same except that the local planning authorities can only work on applications that are on land areas not

exceeding 1000sq meters and 2 storey development; every other type of development must be handled at the District

Office. 

The following are the various steps involved in the approval process of a simple residential development. 

Step 1 After you have purchased the land, and contracted your architect to come up with a design, you should instruct the

architect to give you a copy first, which you will take to the planning office for vetting, to confirm if your design is

in conformity with the approval standards and order for the area which the land is located. This will ensure that

when printing the 5 sets for approval, there will be no errors, and no cause for you to have to pay the architect more

money to make corrections that may be detected and observed at the planning office if you just take your fulldrawings at the end of the process. 

Step 2 If your proposed development is found satisfactory by the planning authority, assessment will be given. The

assessment is based on the volume of your building multiplied by the rate applicable to your land location. Usually

you are to raise 3 bank drafts for payment to:-

The Lagos State Government, The relevant local planning authority of the land location and Lagos State PhysicalPlanning and Development Authority. Depending on your proposal there are some additional fees that will be paid to the Lagos State Government. At

these stage you are to know the various requirements to be submitted for approval as it concerns your proposed

development, so getting them ready before payment is cleared will save you time.

Step 3 Before submission of your application, you will be asked to take an officer of the Authority for site inspection (pre-

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site inspection). This is the first of 3 inspections that your site will be subjected to at the very least, the others being

the construction inspection and post development inspection. The inspection officer is going to confirm if the site in

question is the same as the one being proposed for development, and this can be done by confirming that the

pillar/beacon numbers tally with the ones in the survey plan and also to confirm that you have not commencedconstruction before approval. He will also relate the site to its immediate environment to see if proposal is in

conformity with the existing land use, and if the size of the plot is as presented in the survey plan and designproposal. Also other things such as physical texture of the land, sandy, firm, water logged or swampy will be takeninto account. He will also confirm that the site is accessible. If the inspection report is satisfactory, the application

will then be registered, provided all documents have been submitted.

Step 4 This is the time that your application spends within the planning office, under processing. The following are thesteps that a registered file goes through within the planning office:-

1. The file is endorsed for registration by the district officer(D.O) or Chief Executive Officer(C.E.O) and registered

by the clerical officer who assigns the file number and receives all sheets of the drawing submitted.

2. This is provided all relevant documents are submitted. The file is sent to the table of the DO/CEO, who sends it to

the field officer to include his site sketch and report. While another file is opened with all relevant payment receiptsand sent to the accountants office at LASPPDA headquarters for payment confirmation 

3. The field officer returns file to the DO/CEO, who will act on the report of the field officer. If satisfied with thereport, the file will be sent to the charting officer to determine the conformity of the land with the land use of the

area, and the actual status of the land, if it is freehold, government acquisition, scheme, water catchments, drainage

channel, green zone, etc

4. The file is returned to the DO/CEO who acts on the charting report to determine the next line of action. If the

report is satisfactory, the file is sent to the table of the engineer for vetting of the structural drawings. If the

development is not a bungalow, but is located in an area which does not have a firm land and requires a foundationdifferent from a strip, then structural drawings is required even for 1 floor buildings(bungalows).

5. The engineer will treat the application and revert back to the DO/CEO who will act on the engineers report. If 

found satisfactory then the file is sent to the recommendation officer to vet and recommend as appropriate. 

6. The recommendation officer¶s job is very important, as he/she will go through the entire file to ensure that all that

should be done has been done, all requirements in terms of documents and fees have been included in the file, thesite will also be re-visited to confirm that construction has not commenced, before recommending to the DO/CEO if 

application should be granted approval or not. 

7. The DO/CEO will act on the recommend