Wike Slashes C-of-O Waiting Time to 14 Days as FCT Processes Over 26,000 Titles

Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Minister, Nyesom Wike

Wike Slashes C-of-O Waiting Time to 14 Days as FCT Processes Over 26,000 Titles

The Federal Capital Territory Administration has dramatically reduced the waiting period for landowners to obtain Certificates of Occupancy to just two weeks, marking a significant overhaul of land documentation processes that had previously kept thousands of property owners waiting for years or even decades.

The reform comes as the FCT Administration, under Minister Nyesom Wike, records 26,272 Certificates of Occupancy signed since President Bola Tinubu assumed office in May 2023. This figure represents a remarkable increase over the 8,697 C-of-Os produced and signed between 2010 and 2023, with the current administration processing 17,575 more certificates than were signed during the preceding 13-year period under former Presidents Goodluck Jonathan and Muhammadu Buhari.

Senior Special Assistant to the FCT Minister on Public Communications and Social Media, Lere Olayinka, disclosed this in a statement on Sunday, explaining that the new process allows land allottees who have completed the required payments to obtain their Certificates of Occupancy within two weeks. “The moment necessary payments are made, land allottees can now get their C-of-O within two weeks,” Olayinka said. He added that the administration had introduced an automated notification system to alert allottees when their documents were ready for collection, further reducing the need for repeated visits to government offices.

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A breakdown of the figures showed that 5,500 Certificates of Occupancy were produced and signed during the five-and-a-half-year administration of former President Goodluck Jonathan, while only 3,197 were processed during the eight-year administration of former President Muhammadu Buhari. Olayinka attributed the delays under previous administrations to inefficiencies in the system, which discouraged some landowners from completing payments on their land allocations. Many of the beneficiaries of the 26,272 C-of-Os processed under Wike had received their land allocations more than 10 years ago but were yet to obtain the necessary title documents, underscoring the scale of the backlog the current administration inherited.

The development is expected to have a direct impact on property owners and businesses that rely on land titles to access financing. A valid Certificate of Occupancy serves as an important instrument for securing commercial loans, mortgages and capital for business expansion. Without it, landowners sitting on valuable real assets have effectively been locked out of loans, mortgages, and expansion capital they could otherwise access. The FCT Administration said delays in obtaining title documents had historically restricted access to financing and created severe operational bottlenecks for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).

The FCT Administration also recorded an increase in other property-related approvals under the current administration. In the last three years, it granted 2,521 Consents to Assign and 177 Consents to Mortgage. This compares with 753 Consents to Assign and 180 Consents to Mortgage granted under Jonathan, and 684 Consents to Assign and 164 Consents to Mortgage under Buhari. A Consent to Assign is a legal document required for the transfer of property ownership, while a Consent to Mortgage is the official approval needed before a property can be used as collateral for a loan. The significant rise in Consents to Assign under Wike reflects a more efficient system for property transfers, while the slight decline in Consents to Mortgage may indicate a shift toward direct title issuance as the primary means of unlocking property value.

Behind the numbers, Olayinka said, is a backlog problem the current administration inherited rather than created. The 26,272 certificates signed under Wike had been sitting on land allocations that, in many cases, were over a decade old, meaning property owners who had paid for their allocations years ago could finally formalize their ownership. The FCT is fast becoming a hotspot for land acquisition and development, owing to its widespread road networks within the city centre and parts of the outskirts, and the new documentation reforms are expected to accelerate this trend by making it easier for investors to secure their property rights.

The FCT Administration said the reforms were designed to make land documentation faster and more efficient while unlocking the financial value of property and supporting the Federal Government’s broader ease-of-doing-business agenda under President Tinubu’s Renewed Hope Agenda. By reducing bureaucratic bottlenecks, the administration aims to encourage investment in the FCT, create jobs, and stimulate economic activity through the real estate sector. Property owners and investors seeking to benefit from the new two-week C-of-O processing timeline are advised to ensure all required payments and documentation are completed promptly, while the automated notification system will provide timely updates on document readiness.