New FCT land charges: Rationale, fears and expectations
The review of land charges and fees recently announced is the outcome of wide consultations among major stakeholders, including the majority of residents who ultimately bear the brunt as tenants. Grave concerns expressed about the exorbitant cost of land and tenement rents in the territory have been uppermost in the review process and a frank […]
The review of land charges and fees recently announced is the outcome of wide consultations among major stakeholders, including the majority of residents who ultimately bear the brunt as tenants. Grave concerns expressed about the exorbitant cost of land and tenement rents in the territory have been uppermost in the review process and a frank consideration of the salient objectives of the new regime of charges and fees.
There are a few misconceptions about the reviewed charges and fees which need to be corrected. Although the Minister of the FCT, Senator Adamu Aliero, is desirous of accelerating the development of the Federal Capital Territory in order to make a clear difference from the present slow pace of development as witnessed in the past, he needed the Federal Government’s full support, financially or otherwise and did not just wake up one day and decided to jerk up the land charges.
Like any important policy measure embarked upon by the MFCT, the land charges came about when the Federal Executive Council constituted a cabinet committee to deliberate on the report made by the Federal Capital Territory Administration on the on-going project requiring variation for their completion and the need to execute new ones. At the end, and in view of the need to fast tract the development of the Federal Capital Territory, the Committee recommended for the review of FCT’s internally generated revenue which invariably affected the land charges.
The new policy is therefore a well-thought out and focused initiative to address the challenges posed by the existing regulations in government’s effort to make the FCT less inhospitable for its residents. The main objective of the new policy is to drastically reduce the pressures of a growing population and accelerate development of the vast unoccupied surrounding areas of the Territory
The FCT has over the years suffered from failure to meet development targets, attaining only 25% in its 33 years of existence. In particular, abandoning the planned simultaneous and steady development of the Federal Capital City (FCC), satellite towns and settlements has resulted in the current state of congestion and decay and virtual entrapment of majority of the residents in a vicious cycle of spiralling rents and choked-up settlements.
Contrary to its intended cosmopolitan character, the FCT is becoming another slum-and-splendour metropolis, seemingly hostile to anyone outside Asokoro and Maitama. The Federal Capital Territory was planned to at the completion of its development in 2001, consist of seventy four (74) districts, envisaged to accommodate seven hundred thousand (700,000) people. But today, with less than twenty (20) developed districts, the FCT has more than a population of three million (3,000,000). This ugly development can no longer be condoned hence it was one of the priorities identified by the Minister of the FCT, Senator Adamu Aliero, soon after he assumed office in December last year.
To effectively address this problem, there is no alternative to opening up and developing new districts, satellite towns with dilapidated facilities, rehabilitation and expansion of the existing over stretched infrastructure in all sectors of development, while uninhabited layouts should have the required services and infrastructure for housing development.
These crucial projects are hugely capital intensive yet, notwithstanding competing demands in other socio-economic sectors, they must be urgently executed. The MFCT, conscious of the dwindling sources and levels of funding prevailing in the wake of the global melt-down, must exploit available revenue generation opportunities to the fullest and apply proceeds prudently and pragmatically. Land charges and associated fees are a major source of internal revenue in the FCT but in the past, perhaps owing to more favourable funding from the Federal Government, these have been underrated to such an extent that the booming business of sale of plots and houses was being practically subsidised because of the low rates and high level of defaults in settlement.
Ignorantly however, fears are being expressed in some quarters that the new land charges will lead to increase in the cost of houses, plots and rent in the Federal Capital Territory. But if the new Land policy is objectively and critically analyzed, the pressure pushing up the rents will surely be deflated to the relief of the majority of people in the FCT. It is obvious that the provision of infrastructure in some areas within the Federal Capital City (FCC) where some plots allocated over ten (10) years ago could not be accessed due to lack of infrastructure will certainly be developed while the new districts to be opened up will result in the construction of more houses thereby making houses, plots and rent affordable. It should equally be understood that there is a concession for payments of the new Land charges. Allotees are to make forty percent (40%) initial payment before commencing development, second installment of thirty percent (30%) when infrastructure is provided while the final payment of thirty percent (30%) is expected to be made after occupation before collection of certificate of occupancy.
Abdullahi Idris Zuru Special Assistant on Media/Public Affairs to FCT Minister