No ground rent payment, no building approval – FCTA

By Stanley Onyekwere

The Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA) has said that henceforth, all property developers in the FCT, must show evidence of ground rent payment before the Department of Development Control considers and approve any building plan application.

This measure, the FCTA said  was taken in view of the huge debt of over 29 billion naira owed the Administration by property owners, who have failed to pay their outstanding debt, despite several warnings and appeals.

A statement signed and issued by Director, Information & Communication, FCT / Chairman, Media & Publicity Sub-Committee, Muhammad Hazat Sule, at the the weekend explained that the clearance of all outstanding ground rents is now a requirement for the processing and approval of building plan submitted by property owners in the Abuja, the nation’s capital city.

According to the statement, the Director of the Department Development Control, Mukthar Galadima,  affirmed that the Department will do everything to enforce this new requirement.

It recalled that the FCT Permanent Secretary, Mr. Adesola Olusade recently inaugurated a debt recovery committee with the mandate to recover the outstanding debts owed the FCT Administration with particular interest in ground rents and other sundry fees in the Land Administration as well as other Land related departments.

 “It would be recalled that the Committee has earlier announced the engagement of five law firms, owned by Senior Advocates of Nigeria (SANs), who have been hired to prepare legal documents to commence legal action against the defaulting titleholders.

 “The FCT Administration decided to set up this Coordinating Committee due to the failure of titleholders to pay the prescribed land charges, despite several appeals and notices served on the affected property owners.

 “The Administration had earlier sent out letters serving as last warning to such defaulters, as the government is committed to recover every dime owed it. 

“The Coordinating Committee is poised to do everything within the ambit of the law to recover every dime owed government and will take advantage of this robust partnership with these highly professional legal firms to realize this.

 “The Committee wishes to appeal to the defaulters to be honourable and responsible to pay their outstanding ground rents as it is a better option left to avoid punitive action”, the statement read.