Cotonou City Hall now secures all of its real estate deeds and titles. The principal land community in Bénin breaks with amateurism by committing itself to a formal securing of registrations.
Galloping urbanisation, overpopulation and land scarcity have led in recent years to many disputes, even to the extent that several owners often claim the same rights. This situation is due in part to the poor management of local administration, which used to be able to issue several titles to the same address, and even encourage organised fraud. The result was, for the inner city of Cotonou only (1 million inhabitants), that at least 25,000 false documents were estimated to be in circulation, or, if all of its outer suburbs were included, around 1.8 million.
Eradicating fraud
Mayor Nicéphore Soglo therefore decided to adopt a more rational management system, by affixing an unforgeable Bubble Tag™ onto all land documents. Since 17 August 2009, the system guarantees the origin and traceability of all land registration documents issued, by eliminating the possibility of fraud. All transactions are serialised in one single secure data base. Specific training on the new software was given to the twenty employees at the town hall. Each participant received a training certificate secured by a Bubble Tag™. The conditions now exist, whereby the citizens of Cotonou are offered a quality service for residence permits, the establishment of property rights, ownership transfer certificates, certificates of reclassification, membership and non-litigation. On average, 35-50 Prooftag Bubble Tags™ are issued every day. The system is also accessible to banks and notaries who, in the context of granting a loan or handling a request for a security, can verify online the registration of mortgages or pledges. Armed with this prestigious reference, the OBAC office and Prooftag are confident that other municipalities in Bénin and several public service administrations will adopt the same system.
“This is the first time that an African municipality has decided to secure all of its real estate property deeds and titles within its territorial competence.”
Jacques Philippe Gouthon, legal expert and specialist in the verification of document authenticity, and administrator of the Bénin Office of Authentication and Anti-Fraud (OBAC) which, with Prooftag’s technical support, supervised the introduction of this original application, on behalf of the City Hall of Cotonou, the largest town and the economic capital of Bénin.
