Building a Digital Records Management System for Land Administration in Taraba State

Land disputes arising from poorly maintained physical land records are a major governance challenge in Taraba State, North East Nigeria, where customary and statutory land tenure systems intersect. This study builds a digital records management system for land administration in Taraba State, targeting the Jalingo-based Ministry of Lands, Survey and Town Planning. The system was developed using the ASP.NET Core framework with a SQL Server database, enabling robust document management and geographic information storage. The waterfall development lifecycle was adopted to align with government procurement standards. Core features include plot registration, title deed issuance, ownership transfer tracking, dispute logging, GIS parcel mapping via Leaflet.js, and public inquiry interfaces. Functional and integration testing involved 25 land registry staff across three local government areas. Results show that land record retrieval time decreased from an average of 3 days to under 30 minutes, and title deed processing backlogs cleared by 67 percent within the pilot quarter. The study flags corruption risks in digitisation transitions and recommends an independent audit trail and multi-officer approval workflows to prevent unauthorised record alterations. This research contributes a scalable land records solution to the underserved North East governance environment and supports peaceful land conflict resolution through data transparency. Keywords: land records management, Taraba State, GIS, ASP.NET, land administration