Wike signs record 26,272 C-of-Os, surpasses past two administrations

The Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Nyesom Wike, has signed a total of 26,272 Certificates of Occupancy (C-of-Os) since May 2023 in a bid to ease doing business in the FCT.

This was disclosed in a statement by Lere Olayinka, Senior Special Assistant on Public Communications and Social Media to the FCT Minister, on Sunday.

The development is said to be in line with President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s Renewed Hope Agenda.

What the FCT Minister’s aide is saying

According to the official, the development is against a total of 8,697 C-of-Os allegedly produced and signed between 2010 and 2023.

• He claimed that “during the five-and-a-half-year administration of President Goodluck Jonathan, a total of 5,500 Certificates of Occupancy were produced and signed, while 3,197 were produced and signed during the eight-year administration of President Muhammadu Buhari.”

He explained that many of the allottees who are beneficiaries of the 26,272 Certificates of Occupancy produced and signed by the FCT Administration under Wike got their allocations more than 10 years ago.

Olayinka stated that the current FCT Administration has streamlined the process to enable land allottees to receive their documents within two weeks of completing payment.

• “The moment necessary payments are made, land allottees can now get their C-of-O within two weeks.
• “Also, an automated notification system has been introduced to ensure that land allottees are informed when their documents are ready for collection,” Olayinka stated.

He alleged that landowners were discouraged from completing payments under previous administrations due to inefficiencies.

• “Apart from producing and signing 26,272 Certificates of Occupancy, a total of 2,521 Consents to Assign were granted, while 177 Consents to Mortgage were granted in the last three years of President Tinubu’s administration by the FCT Administration under Nyesom Wike.
• “This is against 753 Consents to Assign and 180 Consents to Mortgage granted by the administration of President Jonathan, as well as 684 Consents to Assign and 164 Consents to Mortgage granted during the eight-year administration of President Buhari,” the statement partly reads.

He explained that a Consent to Assign is a legal document required when selling a property or transferring an interest in a property, while a Consent to Mortgage is an official approval required before a property can be used as collateral for a loan.

Backstory

In 2025, Nyesom Wike announced the reduction of the fee for the issuance of C-of-Os for plots of land in Abuja from N5 million to N3.5 million.

The downward review of the fee appeared to be a reaction to objections from stakeholders and key players in the real estate sector to the initially announced N5 million fee.

Wike had indicated that there would be a downward review of the C-of-O fee, which, he maintained, was a flat rate for all sizes of land, regardless of the location of the land in the FCT.

Mr Wike had said the payment of N3.5 million would not apply to re-certification but only to the issuance of new certificates.

What you should know

The FCT is fast becoming a hotspot for land acquisition and development, owing to its widespread road networks within the city centre and parts of the outskirts.

• Recall that Wike had disclosed that the FCT Administration had pegged the cost of issuing a Certificate of Occupancy (C-of-O) at N5 million.
• He said payment could be made within four 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 Numbers (NINs) to C-of-Os before issuance.

The minister also said the era when three or more persons were allocated the same plot of land with fake C-of-Os was over.