The Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Administration, under the leadership of Minister Nyesom Wike, has produced and signed 26,272 Certificates of Occupancy (C-of-O) in three years, as part of efforts to facilitate ease of doing business and unlock the economic value of land in the nation’s capital.
The figure represents a significant increase compared with the 8,697 C-of-Os produced and signed between 2010 and 2023, spanning the administrations of former Presidents Goodluck Jonathan and Muhammadu Buhari.
A breakdown showed that 5,500 C-of-Os were produced and signed during Jonathan’s five-and-a-half-year administration, while 3,197 were issued during Buhari’s eight years in office.
The development was disclosed yesterday by the Senior Special Assistant to the FCT Minister on Public Communications and Social Media, Lere Olayinka, in a statement in Abuja.
According to Olayinka, many of the beneficiaries of the 26,272 C-of-Os issued under Wike were land allottees whose allocations had been made more than a decade ago.
He said the reform was aimed at improving the ease of doing business in the FCT, noting that a C-of-O serves as a trusted form of collateral for commercial loans, mortgages and business expansion.
Olayinka explained that delays in obtaining title documents had constituted a major obstacle for property owners and small and medium-sized businesses seeking access to finance.
He said the FCT Administration had streamlined the process, enabling land allottees to obtain their C-of-Os within two weeks of completing the required payments.
“The moment necessary payments are made, land allottees can now get their C-of-O within two weeks,” he said.
He added that an automated notification system had also been introduced to alert land allottees when their documents were ready for collection.
According to him, delays under previous administrations were largely attributable to inefficiencies in the system, which discouraged some landowners from completing their payments.
Beyond the issuance of C-of-Os, Olayinka said the FCT Administration had, in the last three years of President Bola Tinubu’s administration, granted 2,521 Consents to Assign and 177 Consents to Mortgage.
He contrasted the figures with the 753 Consents to Assign and 180 Consents to Mortgage granted under Jonathan, as well as 684 Consents to Assign and 164 Consents to Mortgage issued during Buhari’s eight-year administration.
A Consent to Assign is a legal approval required for the transfer or sale of an interest in a property, while a Consent to Mortgage is required before a property can be used as security for a loan.
The FCT Administration said the reforms were part of the broader efforts of the Tinubu administration to remove bureaucratic bottlenecks, improve the investment climate and strengthen the contribution of the property sector to economic growth.
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