By Henry Umoru

MINISTER of the Federal Capital Territory Administration, FCTA, Senator Bala Mohammed has approved the establishment of Accelerated Area

A row of luxury houses in Abuja

Councils Title Re-Issuance Scheme to fast-track the processes leading to the issuance of new Certificates of Occupancy (cs of o ) to Area Councils land owners.

He said the project will unlock hidden revenue for FCT Administration to the tune of about N30 billion and N3 billion per annum as development control and other sundry charges which could be ploughed back into the provision of infrastructure in other key areas respectively.

Disclosing this last week at the end the bi-weekly meeting of the FCTA exco meeting in Abuja, Senator Mohammed explained that the idea was part of the on-going effort of the FCT Administration to reposition Land Administration for better service delivery in line with the SERVICOM Charter of the Federal Government.

The Minister who noted that the scheme will be executed by the FCT Administration in partnership with Messrs Angel E-Solutions Limited. It is an ICT/GIS based private sector collaboration with Messrs Angel E-Solutions Limited as the Consultants that is at no cost to the Government.

Speaking further, the Minister noted that the sharing formula between the government and the private partner is of less percent because it is limited only to the processing fee for the accelerated title re-issuance and does not include other statutory charges as well as outstanding liabilities that will further accrue to the government in form of land transaction charges, ground rent, premium and other land charges.

Senator Bala Mohammed explained that with this development, the Area Councils’ titles will now be in a position to serve as collateral for credit facility anywhere in the world.

“It is estimated that over 150,000 requests for Area Council Certificates of Occupancy have been pending in the Abuja Geographic Information Systems (AGIS),” he noted.

The EXCO, according to the Minister has directed the Abuja Infrastructure and Investment Centre (AIIC) to prepare an implementation framework for the execution of the scheme. It has also directed the FCT Legal Services Secretariat to prepare necessary legal documents to give the arrangement the required legal backing.

In another development, the Minister has approved the establishment of the Departments of Environmental Sanitation in the six Area Councils of the Federal Capital Territory.

The establishment became imperative due to poor environmental condition in the FCT Area Councils which has been of great concern to the Administration.

With this new development, the Minister said the task of sanitation in the Area Councils will be expunged from Primary Health Care department to this special purpose, department of Environmental Sanitation in order to tackle the sanitary problems in such areas head long.

He revealed that the creation of the Department of Environmental Sanitation in the six Area Councils will accentuate commitment for environmental sanitation, thereby complement the efforts of the Abuja Environmental Protection Board, AEPB in this respect.

The six area councils in the FCT are Abaji, Abuja Municipal Area Council, AMAC, Bwari, Gwagwalada, Kwali and Kuje.