The Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Nyesom Wike, has announced the reduction of the fee for issuance of Certificates of Occupancy (C-of-Os) for plots of land in Abuja from N5 million to N3.5 million.
The downward review of the fee appears to be a reaction to the objection by stakeholders and key players in the real estate sector to the initially announced N5 million.
According to a statement by the Director of Press (Office of the FCT Minister), Anthony Ogunleye, this was made known by Wike during his second monthly ministerial press briefing on Friday, November 24, in his office in Abuja.
Wike had indicated days ago that there would be a downward review of the C-of-O fee, which, he maintained, is a flat rate for all sizes of land regardless of the location of the land in the FCT.
Reduction based on recommendations of Task Force
The statement partly reads,
- “Issuance of Certificates of Occupancy will now cost N3.5 million, a reduction from the previously proposed cost of N5 million.’’
But Mr Wike said the payment of the N3.5 million would not apply for re-certification, but only for the issuance of new certificates.
Wike said,
- “Those who have C-of-O don’t need to pay this money. The highest you can pay is maybe N50,000 and for corporate bodies, maybe N100,000 because you already have C-of-O. All you are doing is to recertify to incorporate these new features.’’
The minister said the decision to reduce the cost of C-of-O was based on the recommendations of the Task Force set up on the issuance of the certificate in mass housing estates and recovery of land use contravention fees.
It may be recalled that the Taskforce had proposed the payment of N5 million which was largely objected to by key players in the real estate industry and FCT residents.
It added that this prompted the setting up of an “interface between estate developers as well as residents’ associations”.
The minister had, during that meeting, hinted at the possibility of a downward review of the cost of issuance of the land document.
He equally stated that new security features such as the National Identification Number (NIN) and the Bank Verification Number (BVN) for individuals and corporate organizations, respectively, would be incorporated in the new certificates.
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Recall that some days ago, Wike had disclosed that the FCT Administration had pegged the cost of issuance of a Certificate of Occupancy (C- of-O) at N5 million.
He said payment could be made within 4 months of land allocation after which the C-of-O would be handed over to the applicant.
He added that he would seek the approval of President Bola Tinubu to link applicants’ National Identification Number to C-of-Os before issuance.
The minister also said the era where 3 or more persons were allocated the same plot of land with fake C-of-O was over.
