By PHILIP YATAI

The Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Mr Nyesom Wike, has signed 26,272 Certificates of Occupancy (C of Os) in the first three years of President Bola Tinubu’s administration.

Mr Lere Olayinka, Senior Special Assistant to the minister on Public Communications and Social Media, disclosed this in a statement on Sunday.

Olayinka said the move was aimed at improving ease of doing business in the FCT, in line with Tinubu’s Renewed Hope Agenda.

He said the figure surpassed the 8,697 C of Os produced and signed between 2010 and 2023.

According to him, 5,500 C of Os were signed during the five-and-a-half-year administration of President Goodluck Jonathan, while 3,197 were produced and signed during the eight-year administration of President Muhammadu Buhari.

He said many allottees who benefited from the 26,272 C of Os obtained their land allocations more than 10 years ago.

Olayinka said C of Os served as collateral for commercial loans, mortgages and business expansion.

He said the inability of property owners to obtain C of Os when needed remained a challenge for small and medium-sized businesses, as it restricted access to funding.

“To address this challenge, the FCT Administration under President Tinubu has streamlined the process to enable land allottees receive their documents within two weeks of completing payments.

“The moment necessary payments are made, land allottees can now get their C of O within two weeks.

“Also, automated notifications have been introduced to ensure that land allottees are informed when their documents are ready for collection,” Olayinka said.

He attributed previous delays to inefficiencies that discouraged landowners from completing their payments.

Olayinka said, in addition to the 26,272 C of Os, the FCT Administration granted 2,521 Consents to Assign and 177 Consents to Mortgage in the last three years.

He said this compared with 753 Consents to Assign and 180 Consents to Mortgage granted during the Jonathan administration, and 684 Consents to Assign and 164 Consents to Mortgage under Buhari.

He explained that Consent to Assign was a legal document required for the transfer of property ownership, while Consent to Mortgage was required before a property could be used as collateral for a loan. (NAN)

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