FCT residents to soon start paying for infrastructure, says minister

Bello Muhammad, minister of the federal capital territory, says residents may have to pay for infrastructure in no distant time.

Speaking while on an inspection tour of ongoing road projects in Abuja on Tuesday, Muhammad said government can no longer continue to fund infrastructure in the city.

Muhammad said while it was possible in the past to develop the FCT, the current reality is that to develop each plot now requires “tremendous” amount of resources.

“I think it is just a matter of time, we will have no option but to ensure that every plot has to pay for itself,” he said.

“If you look at it on a plot to plot basis the cost of infrastructure for a plot is so high and if you look at what people pay to government it is so negligible.”

The minister recalled that many years ago when Abuja was created and people were encouraged to come in, it made “a lot of sense” for government to provide infrastructure “because infrastructure had not matched the level of development”.

He, however, said as things stand now, government could no longer fund infrastructure.

“This is something that requires all of us to really sit down as stakeholders and not just the FCT administration,” Muhammad said.

“The development of the city without given due cognisance to funding and providing for infrastructure does not help the city.

“That is why you see that the city has so many districts with 100 per cent houses without infrastructure.”