OpenLandRegistry

Data sources

Every source this register draws on, with its licence and how it is reached. Nothing is collected from a source whose terms have not been checked, and nothing collected automatically is treated as evidence of who holds land.

Why the registries are not scraped

State land registries and the national repositories hold the records that matter most, but none publishes terms that permit automated collection, and several forbid it. Their data reaches this register through official searches made with a client’s authority, and through written agreements, not by working around a login or a payment.

Collected automatically (9)

ESA WorldCover 10 m 2021 v200

European Space Agency, WorldCover consortium

AutomatedPermitted with conditions

Evidence class: Physical contextWhat is on the ground. Never evidence of who holds land.
Licence: CC BY 4.0
How it is reached: Reads windows of the Cloud Optimized GeoTIFF tiles in the public esa-worldcover S3 bucket by range request, summarised into ~250 m cells.
Notes: Land cover from orbit: no evidence of use rights, occupation or ownership.
Credit: © ESA WorldCover project 2021 / Contains modified Copernicus Sentinel data (2021) processed by ESA WorldCover consortium
Collected: 3,332 featuresLast run Succeeded, 14 Sept 2026, 15:52 UTC (NG-OG-LIE-CORRIDOR)
Terms reviewed: 2026-09-14Read the terms

GRID3 Nigeria — Operational LGA Boundaries

eHealth Africa and Proxy Logics (GRID3)

AutomatedPermitted with conditions

Evidence class: Physical contextWhat is on the ground. Never evidence of who holds land.
Licence: CC BY 4.0
How it is reached: ArcGIS FeatureServer query with a bounding-box filter, GeoJSON output, paged.
Notes: Operational boundaries, not gazetted legal boundaries.
Credit: eHealth Africa and Proxy Logics. 2020. Nigeria Operational Local Government Area (LGA) Boundaries. GRID3. https://grid3.gov.ng/
Collected: 774 featuresLast run Succeeded, 15 Sept 2026, 02:15 UTC (NG-NATIONAL)
Terms reviewed: 2026-09-14Read the terms

GRID3 Nigeria — Operational State Boundaries

eHealth Africa and Proxy Logics (GRID3)

AutomatedPermitted with conditions

Evidence class: Physical contextWhat is on the ground. Never evidence of who holds land.
Licence: CC BY 4.0
How it is reached: ArcGIS FeatureServer query with a bounding-box filter, GeoJSON output, paged.
Notes: Operational boundaries, not gazetted legal boundaries.
Credit: eHealth Africa and Proxy Logics. 2020. Nigeria Operational State Boundaries. GRID3. https://grid3.gov.ng/
Collected: 37 featuresLast run Succeeded, 15 Sept 2026, 02:14 UTC (NG-NATIONAL)
Terms reviewed: 2026-09-14Read the terms

GRID3 Nigeria — Operational Wards v3.0

CIESIN, Columbia University (GRID3)

AutomatedPermitted with conditions

Evidence class: Physical contextWhat is on the ground. Never evidence of who holds land.
Licence: CC BY-SA 4.0Share-alike: derived data that is redistributed must carry the same licence.
How it is reached: ArcGIS FeatureServer query with a bounding-box filter, GeoJSON output, paged.
Notes: Covers 24 states including Ogun (not Lagos). ShareAlike: anything derived and redistributed must carry CC BY-SA 4.0. "Operational rather than authoritative."
Credit: CIESIN, Columbia University. 2026. GRID3 NGA - Operational Wards v3.0. https://doi.org/10.7916/2pfj-hq78
Collected: 5,872 featuresLast run Succeeded, 16 Sept 2026, 11:34 UTC (NG-NATIONAL)
Terms reviewed: 2026-09-14Read the terms

GRID3 Nigeria — Settlement Extents v4.1

CIESIN, Columbia University (GRID3)

AutomatedPermitted with conditions

Evidence class: Physical contextWhat is on the ground. Never evidence of who holds land.
Licence: CC BY-SA 4.0Share-alike: derived data that is redistributed must carry the same licence.
How it is reached: ArcGIS FeatureServer query with a bounding-box filter, GeoJSON output, paged.
Notes: Built-up blocks with building counts. ShareAlike: derived layers that are redistributed must carry CC BY-SA 4.0.
Credit: CIESIN, Columbia University. 2026. GRID3 NGA - Settlement Extents v4.1. https://doi.org/10.7916/73v5-mq06
Collected: 4,172 featuresLast run Succeeded, 14 Sept 2026, 15:48 UTC (NG-OG-LIE-CORRIDOR)
Terms reviewed: 2026-09-14Read the terms

GRID3 Nigeria — Settlement Names

eHealth Africa, Proxy Logics and Oak Ridge National Laboratory (GRID3)

AutomatedPermitted with conditions

Evidence class: Physical contextWhat is on the ground. Never evidence of who holds land.
Licence: CC BY 4.0
How it is reached: ArcGIS FeatureServer query with a bounding-box filter, GeoJSON output, paged.
Notes: Used to normalise the village and community names that appear in deeds and gazettes.
Credit: eHealth Africa, Proxy Logics, and ORNL. 2020. Settlement Points in Nigeria. GRID3. https://grid3.gov.ng/
Collected: 292,438 featuresLast run Succeeded, 16 Sept 2026, 11:55 UTC (NG-NATIONAL)
Terms reviewed: 2026-09-14Read the terms

Google Open Buildings v3

Google Research

AutomatedPermitted with conditions

Evidence class: Physical contextWhat is on the ground. Never evidence of who holds land.
Licence: CC BY 4.0 (or ODbL 1.0, at the user’s choice)
How it is reached: Streams the public per-S2-cell CSV files from storage.googleapis.com and keeps only footprints inside an area of interest at confidence ≥ 0.70.
Notes: Machine-detected from imagery inferred May 2023. A footprint shows a structure was visible, not a parcel, a builder or a holder. Level-6 files are in the public bucket but not described on the product page.
Credit: Google Open Buildings v3 (Sirko et al. 2021)
Collected: 142,431 featuresLast run Succeeded, 14 Sept 2026, 15:59 UTC (NG-OG-LIE-CORRIDOR)
Terms reviewed: 2026-09-14Read the terms

OpenStreetMap (Overpass API)

OpenStreetMap contributors

AutomatedPermitted with conditions

Evidence class: Physical contextWhat is on the ground. Never evidence of who holds land.
Licence: ODbL 1.0Share-alike: derived data that is redistributed must carry the same licence.
How it is reached: Tiled bounding-box queries to overpass-api.de, one at a time, identified by User-Agent. Nationwide coverage comes from the Geofabrik extract instead.
Notes: Fair use: well under 10,000 queries and 1 GB a day (÷100 for regular jobs), no parallel clients, 30 s pause on 429. A publicly used derivative database must be shared under ODbL, so OSM rows are never merged into records under another licence.
Credit: © OpenStreetMap contributors
Collected: 7,330 featuresLast run Succeeded, 14 Sept 2026, 16:10 UTC (NG-OG-LIE-CORRIDOR)
Terms reviewed: 2026-09-14Read the terms

OpenStreetMap Nigeria extract (Geofabrik)

Geofabrik GmbH, from OpenStreetMap contributors

AutomatedPermitted with conditions

Evidence class: Physical contextWhat is on the ground. Never evidence of who holds land.
Licence: ODbL 1.0Share-alike: derived data that is redistributed must carry the same licence.
How it is reached: The nationwide .osm.pbf (~675 MB, daily). Not yet wired: it needs a PBF reader, and the Overpass adapter covers pilot areas.
Notes: The route for national coverage, instead of tens of thousands of Overpass queries.
Credit: © OpenStreetMap contributors
Collected: Nothing yet
Terms reviewed: 2026-09-14Read the terms

Not collected automatically (9)

Abuja Geographic Information Systems (AGIS)

Federal Capital Territory Administration

Not automatedUnknown

Evidence class: Authoritative recordRegistry and cadastre records. Obtained by official search or agreement.
Licence: None published
How it is reached: Legal search in person with the original title document and identification: ₦10,000 (individual file) or ₦20,000 (commercial), paid via Remita, results in one to three days.
Notes: Transactional only; no public database or API.
Collected: Nothing yet
Terms reviewed: 2026-09-14

Edo State Geographic Information Service (EdoGIS)

Edo State Government

Not automatedUnknown