DIGITAL LAND GOVERNANCE AND GENDER JUSTICE: THE ROLE OF ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE AND GEOSPATIAL TECHNOLOGIES IN NIGERIA’S CUSTOMARY AND STATUTORY LAND ADMINISTRATION

Abstract

Land constitutes one of Nigeria's most valuable economic, social, cultural and environmental resources. Nevertheless, women's access to ownership and control of land remain constrained by interaction of customary institutions, statutory law, patriarchal social relations and administrative practices. Existing studies have largely examined women's land rights through legal, socio-cultural and economic perspectives, with limited attention to how Fourth Industrial Revolution technologies contributed to gender-responsive land governance. This paper examines the potential of Artificial Intelligence (AI), Geographic Information Systems (GIS), Remote Sensing, Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS), block-chain, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), cloud computing and digital cadastral systems in transforming Nigerian land administration and promote gender justice. African Feminist Theory, Legal Pluralism Theory, Social Relations Theory and Digital Governance Theory provide the analytical framework. The study adopted a qualitative research approach; designed based on critical analysis of scholarly literatures such as gender studies and legislation books, judicial decisions, international policy instruments and institutional publications. The paper argues that AI-assisted land administration, GIS-based cadastral mapping, gender-disaggregated spatial databases, block-chain enabled land records and digital land information systems; improve transparency, reduce administrative inefficiencies and corruption, strengthen women's tenure security and support evidence-based policy. However, technology is not yet including gender-neutral. Gender bias, historical data in accurate, digital exclusion, weak policy implementation andlow institutional capacity, inadequate infrastructure and patriarchal customary structures reproduce the existing inequalities through digital bias computation. The paper therefore proposes an interdisciplinary digital land governance framework that connects customary and statutory institutions with gender-sensitive AI and geospatial technologies. It concludes that technological innovation can contribute to sustainable gender justice only when accompanied by legal reform, institutional accountability, transparency, community participation, digital inclusion and culturally responsive governance.