FCT: Wike announces new reforms on ground allocation, development

Nyesom Wike, Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), has issued new orders on land management, including allocation and development of the territory within the territory.

The new orders have been contained in a declaration issued jointly by Chijoke Nwanwoeze, director of the Land Administration FCTA and Lere Olayinka, his special assistant for public communication and social media during the weekend.

The reforms, which would become operational from 21 April 2025, cover specific areas such as the conditions of granting the right of legal employment (ROOO), the content of legal law to the law on employment, the content of the letter of acceptance/refusal of the offer of granting the right of employment, title of mass housing and sectional interests, as well as regularization of the Council area.

According to the reform, the high ground now have 21 days from the date of the offer to make the complete payment of all invoices, taxes, rents and expenses prescribed on the offer of legal employment rights and present a duly completed acceptance letter together with payments tests or losing the offer.

Furthermore, compared to the long term within which to develop assigned lands, the period within which to erect and complete the developments on any land granted in the FCT is now two years after the date of the start of the Rooo.

The minister, who revealed the reforms during a printing printing through his special assistant for public communications, Lere Olayinka, revealed that “any ROOO invoices and any other payment made outside the 21 scheduled days will be considered not valid while any land granted should be developed within two years”.

“On land previously assigned by the Area Councils, the law establishes that all the lands in the FCT are urban land. It is therefore necessary that all the land documents issued by the area councils are considered to regularize the statutory qualifications in line with the relevant statutes.”

He complained that in 2006, the land planning and zonal investigation offices of the six area councils were aimed at presenting all the allocation lists of the Area Council, the layouts, files and registers of the Department of Geographical Information of Abuja (AGIS)/Lands, which they did.

However, he declared that to date, out of 261,914 land documents of the area council presented for regularization, only 8,287 have been checked, of which only 2,358 have been canceled, validated and regularized to statutory qualifications.

“The 8,287 were checked from 2006 to 2023 (17 years), and this represents only 3.2 percent of the total land documents presented for control and regularization. To date, the FCT administration is still left with 253,627 submissions in its database,” he said.

The minister also revealed that “the documents of the area of ​​the Area Council have successfully checked and confirmed would have had legal securities on these land issued and the allies will have 60 days to make complete payments of all invoices, fees, rents and prescribed charges of which the offers do not become disabled”.

“From the beginning of the mass housing program in 2000 to date, out of 445 allocations of mass housing granted, only two developers have successfully met the terms and conditions.”

The mass housing program was started in 2000 to use the public private partnership strategy (PPP) with the aim of providing accommodation at affordable prices for FCT residents.

According to him, a new operational framework has been developed for the title of mass housing and sectional interests to accelerate the exercise efficiently, effective and diligently, in line with the vision to restore trust in the administration of the lands in the FCT.

“Currently, the owners/occupants of the properties within the various mass housing properties in the FCT do not pay invoices, rentals, commissions and accusations to the government despite having kept and occupied the properties for decades,” he explained.

The minister said that in recognition of the urgent need to issue securities to the beneficiaries of mass housing and section interests, all questions of securities must be asked by subscribers/developers to the Department of the Administration of the territory for processing.

“The processing of securities for mass houses and sectional interests will begin on April 21, 2025, in line with the new operational framework,” he said.