Wike enforces 21-day payment deadline, two-year building limit in FCT

Nyesom Wike, minister of the federal capital territory (FCT), has announced sweeping reforms aimed at improving land administration in the city.

The changes, set to take effect from April 21, 2025, include a strict 21-day deadline for land allottees to make full payments for right of occupancy (R-of-O) bills and associated charges. Failure to meet the deadline will result in the cancellation of the land offer.

The reforms, disclosed in a joint statement by Chijioke Nwankwoeze, director of FCTA land administration, and Lere Olayinka, senior special assistant to the minister on public communications and social media, are designed to address long-standing issues with delayed payments, revenue collection, and land speculation.

Under the previous system, there was no set deadline for payment, causing delays in revenue collection and hindering infrastructural development.

The new policy stipulates that land allottees now have 21 days from the date of receiving an offer to pay all bills, fees, and charges, and submit a completed letter of acceptance alongside proof of payment.

Additionally, the reforms introduce a two-year limit within which all land granted in the FCT must be developed.

“This has caused delay in revenue receivable due to non-collection of Right of Occupancy (R-of-O) and non-payment of bills, slower pace of infrastructural development, sustained land speculation and racketeering while huge expenses have been incurred by the FCT Administration through repeated advertisements and publications notifying the public on the need for collection of R-of-O and timely payment of bills and charges,” the statement reads.

“Consequently, as against the unspecified period within which to collect the Right of Occupancy (R-of-O) and make full payment of the Statutory Right of Occupancy bills and charges, land allottees now have 21 days from the date of offer, to make full payment of all bills, fees, rents and charges prescribed on offers of Statutory Rights of Occupancy and submit a duly completed Letter of acceptance alongside evidence of payments, or lose the offer.

”The period within which to erect and complete developments on any land granted in the FCT is now two years from the date of the commencement of the R-of-O.

“Therefore, any R-of-O bills and any other payments made outside the stipulated 21 days shall be considered invalid while any land granted should be developed within two years.

“On lands previously allocated by Area Councils, the law stipulates that all lands in the FCT are urban land. It therefore becomes necessary that all land documents issued by the Area Councils are considered for regularisation to statutory titles in line with relevant statutes.”

In a bid to streamline land titles, the FCTA will also begin regularising land documents issued by area councils.

Of the 261,914 area council land documents submitted since 2006 for regularisation, only 8,287 have been vetted, out of which only 2,358 were cleared, validated and regularised to statutory titles.

Landholders with successfully vetted documents will have 60 days to pay all relevant fees or risk losing their offers. 

The FCTA also plans to tackle longstanding issues with mass housing estates, where occupiers “have not paid bills or charges for decades”.

“Currently, the holders/occupiers of properties within the various Mass Housing Estates in the FCT do not pay and bills, rents, fees and charges to the government despite having held and occupied the properties for decades,” the statement added.

“In recognition of the urgent need to issue titles to the beneficiaries of Mass Housing and Sectional Interests, all applications for titling are to be made by the Subscribers/Developers to the Department of land Administration for processing.”

The FCTA noted that a new operational framework for issuing titles to mass housing and sectional interests will be implemented starting from April 21, 2025.