NOSA EGHAGHA
ABUJA, Nigeria – Days after the FCT Minister, Nyesom Wike, has issued a two-week ultimatum for those owing ground rents to pay up or have their property revoked followed by the subsequent publishing of names of defaulters, the Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA) has suddenly raked in over N1.9 billion from debtors.
With the new sherif in town, it is no more business as usual in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), as residents have all woken up to reality that the new minister, Nyesom Wike, is a man of his words.
Following the Minister’s threat, the premises of the Abuja Geographic Information Systems (AGIS), has now become a beehive of activities with debtors of ground rent trooping in for payment to avoid the impeding revocation of their property.
Addresing journalists in Abuja, the acting Director, AGIS, Isiaku Alfa, said that there has been a surge in payment of ground rents since the Minister threatened revocation and commenced publication of the debtors names.
According to him, collections from June to July were at lowest ebb, but immediately after the Minister’s announcement in August, ground rent earnings quickly rose to N500 million, growing steadily to over N1 billion.
He said that as at September 17, ground rents generated for the FCT Administration almost hit two billion Naira, even as he expressed optimism that the figure may be double by the end of the month.
Alfa stated that with the planned introduction of the online payment portal for the collection of ground rents, the certificate of occupants (CoO), and others, the transaction would be easier and more monies collected by AGIS.
He disclosed that the online payment app was already developed and an official launch was expected by the FCT Minister before the end of this year.
“That platform will give you the freedom wherever you are, so that in the comfort of your home, you can log in and feed in some necessary information, which will lead to the payment of ground rent depending on the area and lines of your property.
“That is the way going forward, and very soon, we can launch that App into the remita, so the app will have an interface with the remita,”
The Acting Director further said: “This is the first time in the inception of the Federal Capital Territory that we have somebody at the helm of affairs (Nyesom Wike) who really cares about the Internally Generated Revenue (IGR)
“If you don’t have revenue or you have dwindling revenues, you might not be able to embark on some capital projects as it were, so, ever since the honourable minister came in his wisdom,
“I don’t want to say he warned but he advised that all property owners within the FCT should make it as a point of duty to meet up with their own part of the obligations, as far as the ground rent payments are concerned.
“To our amazement and happiness, there was a surge at the customer service area, and that surge also translated into recoveries, in the sense that monies that were being owed are now being paid.”
In order to cope with the surge of customers into AGIS, the Director revealed that additional laptops and computer systems have been procured; and redeployment of staff within sections have been effected to meet up with the Honourable Minister’s two-week ultimatum.
When pressed to reveal the number of those who have so far paid, he stated that the number was not constant, but the “collection is about 300 per cent of what we collected before now.”
Corroborating the Acting Director, AGIS, Director, Department of Land Administration, FCTA, Jibril Husseini applauded the FCT Minister for the decision, saying it was the only way to collect the iveren N34 billion debt.
He stated that non-payment of ground rents was “a breach of terms and breach of the condition of allocation.”
The Director however said that “There is an upsurge in the response to the pronouncement and it is very positive and people are coming to pay.”
He stated that ground rent was a “statutory payment for land, as long as the allocation has been made, you must pay ground rent whether on-demand or not, it is not that we must demand it.
“As an allottee, it is a right that you must pay ground rent to the government, whether we demand it or not.”
He however, disclosed that, over the years, Lands has been advertising, advising allottees to pay, “but we don’t go to the extent of publishing all the plot numbers, file numbers….but with the publication, it has enlightened people the more and yielded more positive result.”
The Director also explained that ground rent was paid on land allocation, whether developed or not, while tenement rate is payable on developed properties, and advised all debtors to come out and pay “because you don’t test government and risk revocation of the title. To be frank, I will advise them,” he insisted.
