The Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA) has disclosed that 26,272 Certificates of Occupancy (C-of-O) have been produced and signed by the FCT Minister, Nyesom Wike, since President Bola Tinubu assumed office.
The administration said the figure was nearly three times the combined 8,697 Certificates of Occupancy issued between 2010 and 2023 under the administrations of former Presidents Goodluck Jonathan and Muhammadu Buhari.
Senior Special Assistant to the FCT Minister on Public Communications and Social Media, Lere Olayinka, disclosed this in a statement on Sunday.
According to him, Jonathan’s five-and-a-half years in office accounted for 5,500 of the 8,697 C-of-Os, while Buhari’s eight years produced 3,197.
Olayinka, however, said the large number of certificates issued under the current administration largely reflected efforts to clear a backlog inherited from previous administrations.
He said many beneficiaries of land allocations had waited for more than a decade without receiving the necessary documentation to establish their ownership.
According to him, inefficiencies in the previous system discouraged many allottees from completing payments because they were uncertain about when, or whether, their certificates would be processed.
He said the FCTA had now introduced measures aimed at making the process faster and more transparent.
“The moment necessary payments are made, land allottees can now get their C-of-O within two weeks,” Olayinka said.
He added that an automated notification system had also been introduced to alert allottees once their documents were ready for collection.
The FCTA spokesman said the reforms had implications beyond land documentation because Certificates of Occupancy were often required by banks and financial institutions before property could be accepted as collateral.
He noted that the absence of such documents had previously prevented landowners and small and medium-sized businesses from accessing loans, mortgages and other forms of financing.
The administration also reported an increase in other land-related transactions.
It said 2,521 Consents to Assign and 177 Consents to Mortgage were granted during the three years under review.
This compares with 753 Consents to Assign and 180 Consents to Mortgage issued under Jonathan, while 684 Consents to Assign and 164 Consents to Mortgage were granted during Buhari’s administration, according to the statement.
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