If you have ever tried to buy land in Nigeria, you have almost certainly encountered the confusion around land documents. Someone offers you a piece of farmland and produces a Deed of Assignment. You ask about a C of O and they say one is not available. A friend tells you that a Survey Plan is the most important document. Someone else says none of it matters if the Governor’s Consent is missing. And somewhere in the middle of all this, you are expected to make a decision about a significant amount of money.

This confusion is not accidental. The Nigerian land documentation system is genuinely complex, and that complexity creates space for misrepresentation, whether by sellers who do not fully understand the law themselves or by those who exploit buyer ignorance deliberately. The result is that many people buy land with documents that do not actually protect them and only find out when a dispute arises.

This article explains the three documents that come up most often in farmland transactions in Nigeria, what each one is, what it proves, what it does not prove, and how they relate to each other. By the end, you will know how to look at any land transaction with clear eyes.

The Certificate of Occupancy (C of O)

The Certificate of Occupancy, almost always referred to as a C of O, is the highest form of land title available in Nigeria under the Land Use Act of 1978. To understand what it means, you need to understand one foundational principle of Nigerian land law: under the Land Use Act, all land in every state of Nigeria is technically vested in the Governor of that state. Private individuals and organisations do not own land outright in the way that you might own a car or a piece of furniture. What they hold is a right of occupancy, which is the state’s formal grant of the right to use and develop a specific piece of land.

A Certificate of Occupancy is the document that confirms this right of occupancy has been formally granted by the state. It is issued in the name of a specific person or organisation, for a specific parcel of land identified by its survey plan number and coordinates, for a specified term which is typically 99 years for residential and agricultural land. It is registered at the state lands registry and carries a unique file number that can be searched and verified.

A C of O does not mean the holder owns the land in absolute terms. It means the state has recognised their right to occupy and use it, and that right is protected under law. Crucially, when a holder of a C of O wants to transfer that right to another person through a sale, that transfer is not complete under the law until the state gives its formal approval, which comes in the form of a document called Governor’s Consent. A C of O transferred without Governor’s Consent is a transaction that the state does not recognise as legally complete.

For farmland buyers, a C of O is the strongest title document you can receive. But receiving one is not enough on its own. You must still conduct a search at the state lands registry to confirm that the C of O is genuine, that it is registered in the seller’s name, that it has not been revoked, and that it has not been used as collateral for a loan that remains unpaid.

The Deed of Assignment

A Deed of Assignment is a legal contract that records the transfer of land rights from one party (the assignor) to another (the assignee). It is one of the most commonly encountered documents in Nigerian land transactions, particularly in Lagos, Ogun, Oyo, and other states with active property markets. When you buy land from someone and they sign it over to you, the document recording that transaction is typically a Deed of Assignment.

It is important to understand what a Deed of Assignment is and what it is not. It is a record of a private agreement between two parties. It records that Party A agreed to transfer their rights to Party B in exchange for a stated consideration. It describes the land by reference to a survey plan. It is signed by both parties and witnessed. However, by itself, a Deed of Assignment has limited legal force until it is registered at the state lands registry. An unregistered deed is essentially just a private contract between two people. It is not notice to the rest of the world that the land has changed hands.

Registration is what gives the deed its full legal effect. Once registered, the transaction appears in the public record at the lands registry and any subsequent search will reveal it. This also means that if someone sells the same piece of land to two different buyers, the one who registers their deed first generally has the stronger legal claim, regardless of who paid first.

For farmland buyers, a Deed of Assignment on its own, without a corresponding C of O or registered title backing it, is a weak document. It tells you that someone claimed to sell you the land. It does not tell you whether they had the legal right to sell it in the first place, whether the state recognises any rights in the land, or whether anyone else has a prior registered interest.

The Survey Plan

A Survey Plan is a technical document prepared by a licensed surveyor that identifies and describes the physical boundaries of a piece of land. It shows the location of the land using geographic coordinates, maps its boundaries, states its total area, and identifies any adjoining features such as roads, rivers, or neighbouring parcels. It carries the stamp and signature of the licensed surveyor who prepared it and a file number that can be verified with the state’s office of the Surveyor-General.

A Survey Plan answers one specific question: where exactly is this land and how big is it? It does not tell you who owns the land, whether there is a valid title over it, or whether the seller has the right to sell it. These are questions that only the title documents and the lands registry can answer.

The Survey Plan is nonetheless an essential document in any land transaction because without it, you cannot precisely identify what you are buying. Two neighbouring parcels may look identical on the ground but have completely different legal statuses. The survey plan’s coordinates and boundaries are what tie a title document to a specific physical piece of earth.

Critically, every Survey Plan must be verified with the Surveyor-General’s office of the relevant state to confirm two things: that the surveyor who signed it is licensed and that the land does not fall within a government acquisition or excision area. Land that has been acquired by the government or that falls within a gazette forest reserve cannot be privately developed regardless of what title documents exist over it, and this check is the only way to confirm it.

How the Three Documents Work Together

The key insight that most buyers miss is that these three documents are not alternatives to each other. They are components of a complete title picture, and a strong land transaction should have all three working together rather than just one of them standing alone.

A Survey Plan identifies the land physically. A C of O or registered Deed of Assignment establishes the legal rights over it. And where a C of O has been transferred, Governor’s Consent completes the transfer legally. Together, they tell you what the land is, where it is, who has the right to it, and whether that right has been properly recognised by the state.

When any of these pieces is missing, there is a gap in the title picture that a lawyer needs to assess. Sometimes a gap is explainable and can be resolved. Sometimes it signals a fundamental problem with the transaction. Either way, you need professional help to make that assessment. It is not something a buyer should try to evaluate alone based on what the seller tells them.

For agricultural land specifically, the situation is sometimes further complicated by the presence of only customary title. Many plots of farmland in Nigeria, particularly in states like Oyo, Osun, Ekiti, and Edo, have never had a formal C of O processed for them. They are held under customary law and transferred through community and family arrangements. This does not automatically make them illegitimate, but it does mean the verification process is different and requires deeper local and legal knowledge to navigate safely.

What This Means for Farmland Buyers Specifically

Agricultural land in Nigeria sits in a particularly complex part of the title landscape. A large proportion of farmland, especially in southwest Nigeria, has never gone through the formal C of O process. It is held under customary arrangements that predate the Land Use Act and that work well within the community but that carry real risks for an outside buyer who does not know the full local picture.

This does not mean farmland without a C of O cannot be purchased safely. It means the due diligence process is more involved and absolutely requires a lawyer with specific knowledge of land law in that state and ideally in that locality. It also means the price should reflect the weaker documentation, and any transaction should include provisions for obtaining a formal C of O after purchase wherever that is possible.

At Vantage Nigeria, we take the position that no farmland should be sold to a client without proper documentation being in place. This is what dispute-free land means for us in practice. We do not sell land with only a family letter or a community consent. Every parcel we offer either has a C of O, a registered deed with a clear chain of title, or a documented and legally verified customary title. Our clients are given copies of all documents and encouraged to have their own lawyers review them independently before any payment is made.