BY Samad Uthman
Nyesom Wike, the minister of the federal capital territory (FCT), has directed Abuja landowners to recertify their existing certificate of occupancy (C-of-O).
While speaking on Friday during a media parley, Wike said the recertification will involve the linking of the owner’s national identification number (NIN) and bank verification number (BVN).
He said the motive behind the recertification is to put an end to the suspected racketeering of C-of-O issued to mass housing estate developers.
Wike said the issuance of C-of-O will now cost N3.5 million, a reduction from the previously proposed cost of N5 million.
“Over the years, nobody has been able to enforce the payment of ground rent. I came on board and I said okay, it can’t be business as usual,” he said.
“You have property, you are given a C of O to back up your property. In that C of O, you are told to be paying annual ground rent. For the past 15 years, you didn’t pay. Some people, for the past 20 years, they never paid.
“And you know Nigerians, they said nothing will happen. I came and said something will happen and they have to pay. Seeing that we mean what we have said, if you don’t pay, we will revoke and we have been doing that, people are now queuing up to pay. Go to AGIS, people are queuing up and that has now increased our IGR.”
The minister said the internally generated revenue (IGR) in the FCT has increased from a monthly collection of N14 billion to over N20 billion.
On November 15, the FCT minister inaugurated a committee to investigate the issuance of C-of-O for mass housing and the recovery of land use contravention fees.
During the chat, Wike said since his assumption of office, he had refrained from signing C-of-Os because of the need to introduce enhanced security measures on the issuance.
He added that the recertification of C-of-Os would cost N50,000 for individuals and N100,000 for corporate bodies.
“There are a lot of discrepancies, a lot of cloning of C-of-Os. So, we have come up with an idea that every allottee who seeks and applies for a C-of-O must supply his NIN; this is one of the features we are going to put in the new C-of-O,” Wike said.
“If a corporate body doesn’t have an NIN and they have a property, they must put their BVN. So many persons have not registered, and this will make them go and re-register.
“For everyone who has a C-of-O, they will come for a recertification, so that we can incorporate the NIN or BVN.
“Those who had a C-of-O before don’t need to pay money again; the highest they can pay is N50,000, and corporate bodies will pay N100,000. It helps in terms of security; it also helps to improve our revenue generation.”
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