As part of efforts to facilitate the ease of doing business, the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Nyesom Wike, said the administration, FCTA, has produced and signed 26,272 Certificates of Occupancy (C-of-O) in three years to unlock the economic value of land in the nation’s capital.

Disclosing this in a statement yesterday, the Senior Special Assistant to the FCT Minister on Public Communications and Social Media, Lere Olayinka, noted that many of the beneficiaries of the certificates issued under Wike were allotted land over a decade ago.

The figure represents a significant increase compared to the 8,697 C-of-O produced and signed between 2010 and 2023 under former presidents Goodluck Jonathan and Muhammadu Buhari.

A breakdown showed that 5,500 C-of-O were produced and signed during Jonathan’s five-and-a-half-year administration, while 3,197 were issued during Buhari’s eight years in office.

Describing a C-of-O as a trusted form of collateral for commercial loans, mortgages and business expansion, Olayinka explained that delays in obtaining title documents had constituted a major obstacle for property owners, as well as small and medium-sized businesses seeking access to finance.

He said the FCTA had streamlined the process, enabling land allottees to obtain their C-of-O within two weeks of completing the required payments. He added that an automated notification system had also been introduced to alert land allottees when their documents were ready for collection.

Beyond the issuance of C-of-O, Olayinka said the FCTA had, in the last three years of President Bola Tinubu’s administration, granted 2,521 Consents to Assign and 177 Consents to Mortgage, as compared to the 753 Consents to Assign and 180 Consents to Mortgage granted under Jonathan, and 684 Consents to Assign and 164 Consents to Mortgage issued during Buhari’s administration.

A Consent to Assign is a legal approval required for the transfer or sale of an interest in a property, while a Consent to Mortgage is required before a property can be used as security for a loan.