Fct Minister Mohammed Bello
Fct Minister Mohammed Bello
FCT Confirms 11,263 Certificate of Occupancy Ready for
Collection
The attention of the FCT Administration has been drawn to a
publication in Daily Trust of Monday 14th October 2019 edition,
page 44, titled “Land Title Hitches Delay Property Investments in
Abuja”, blaming the authority of most estates, properties without
C-of-O; in addition, alleged that the Hon. Minister has not signed
up to 500 Certificates of Occupancy (C-of-O) since 2015.
These blame games and allegations are frivolous and most
unfortunate, because they are far from being true. The FCT
Administration has the duty to allocate land in the entire 8,000
square kilometers of the Federal Capital Territory and control
development therein, which no doubt has been carried out
judiciously. There is no city in the West African sub-region that
can equal Abuja’s quality development with its aesthetic beauty.
The investment on property in the Federal Capital Territory has
remained attractive globally because of the painstaking way the
authority has packaged the processes. Although there are
challenges, but it has been able to surmount them.
To put the records straight, it is imperative to know that
Estate Developers are usually given allocation of land with a
letter of intent to build houses for sale to would be
beneficiaries. The Developers are expected not to sell plots of
land but completed houses with secondary and tertiary
infrastructure like road network, electricity and water supply
within their respective estates; while the FCT Administration
provides the primary infrastructure.
The Estate Developers with genuine titles are under Terms and
Condition with the FCT Administration, part of which at the end of
development and sales, are expected to submit the names of all the
beneficiaries / buyers of their houses to the FCT Administration
for subsequent issuance of individual titles as well as
Certificates of Occupancy. To date, majority of these Estate
Developers have not come up with the list (s) of buyers of their
houses; and Cs of O are not meant for the Developers but the buyers
(beneficiaries) of these houses. Although the list must be provided
by the developers to enable the FCT Administration process the
titles and Certificates.
For the purposes of records, the FCT Administration currently
has 11,263 Certificates of Occupancy in the vaults of Land
Administration that have remained uncollected by their bona fide
owners. Some of these Certificates have spent over 10 years in our
vaults. These are documents expected to be in possession of their
owners to lubricates the economy with multiplier effects on the
lives of the citizenry.
It was alleged in the publication that the FCT Minister has not
signed up to 500 Certificates of Occupancy since 2015 which is very
untrue because the Minister signed 2,493 Certificates of Occupancy
from May 2015 to May 2019. The breakdown of some of the
Certificates signed by the current FCT Administration include
Agriculture – 5; Commercial – 131; Industrial – 36; Mixed Use – 45;
Open Space /Green Area – 3; Public Institution – 59; and
Residential 2,214 totaling 2,493. Meanwhile, as the Minister was
re-appointed the first and second batches of Certificates of
Occupancy has already been processed, while other batches are
undergoing vetting, production and further processes with high
level of due diligent.
It is equally important to note that the processing and issuance
of Certificates of Occupancy is strictly guided by statutory
provisions and Land Administration policies of the FCT.
The FCT Administration has moved a step further to call on the
owners of Certificates of Occupancy abandoned in our vaults through
a paid advertisement in The Nation (Pages 27-31) and Leadership
(Pages 11-15) Newspapers respectively of Tuesday 15th October 2019~
to please come forward to collect them forthwith.
M.H. SULE
Deputy Director, Information & Customer Service
