Land title hitches delay property investments in Abuja

Most estates and properties in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja, do not have Certificate of Occupancy (C-of-O) due to the challenges involved in the processing of land titles from the authorities responsible for land management, Daily Trust has learnt.

The inability to process the backlog of applications for the issuance of C-of-O continues to deny individuals and corporate investors the right to use their lands or properties to raise funds for investment in the real estate and property market.

Daily Trust reports that in Nigeria, C-of-O is a document issued by state governments to landowners and property buyers as a legitimate proof of ownership. It also spells out what the land can be used for: residential, commercial or mixed development. C-of-O is deemed the most important document to a land owner or property buyer in Nigeria as it can be used for many purposes, including serving as a collateral.

A cross section of developers, builders and estate surveyors interviewed for this report said the production and processing of C-of-O and other title documents takes very long in Abuja.

They said as a result of this, many property owners in highbrow areas of the city were struggling to get their C-of-O several years after paying the required fees and fulfilling the conditions for issuance of the vital land title.

They further said part of the implication of this delay in the issuance of C-of-O to valid or genuine land and property owners was the proliferation of fraudulent practices that were often associated with the processing of C-of-O in the FCT and its environs.

An Abuja-based estate surveyor and valuer at Shola Abeji & Partners, Mr. Olushola Abeji, said the reason most estates and properties in Abuja did not have C-of-O was not far-fetched.

Mr. Abeji said, “You can get an allocation letter from the government; they will tell you, ‘Don’t worry, we will give you C-of-O’, but you won’t get it. Most times the developers have a developer’s agreement with the government or a letter of intent. Not even a Right of Occupancy (R-of-O). There are people with properties in Wuse and other highbrow areas that are struggling to get their C-of-O signed.

“We also have issues of land racketeering and double allocation by sister agencies. The Federal Capital Development Authority (FCDA) will allocate a plot to you and the Abuja Metropolitan Council (AMAC) will allocate the same plot to you.”

He further said the chances of revocation of lands without titles at will by government was a major concern to developers and prospective investors in the property market in the city.

“It is already happening. Right now, around Lokogoma axis, there are estates that have been marked for demolition,” he said.

Abeji added that getting loans from banks with an R-of-O or any other land title outside C-of-O was a herculean task as the title most respected by the banks was C-of-O, further saying, “even with the C-of-O, we have challenges. This current minister hasn’t signed up to 500 C-of-O since he assumed office. So, you have people with proper allocations and with all the required documents, they don’t have C-of-O, some for close to 10 years, and we are talking about development and growth. Until you have a C-of-O, any document you have can be revoked at will.”

The President of the Nigerian Institute of Building (NIOB), Kunle Awobodu, said so many people have experienced the dangers of prolonged processing of C-of-O.

He said, “Assuming fund is already made available for a project, when execution is delayed there is tendency to divert such fund. Once you don’t devote the available fund immediately for a project, such fund will start to lose its size gradually.

“Secondly, assuming that you are expecting a facility from the bank and they need C-of-O as a guarantee, with the prolonged process, there is tendency for you not to provide such requirement as at when due. So, such facility may just escape your grip. It may be foreign partners that are to execute the project and there is a time limit that they could tarry because of some other activities elsewhere. Once the allocated time is no longer favourable, you may lose such expertise.

“It is because our system appears analogue compared to well computerised systems in other climes. It is advisable for us to introduce some kind of methodology that can facilitate the process.”

Awobodu, however, explained that the process for a C-of-O was prolonged in the FCT because of the need to verify the authenticity of land ownership; which was usually done by various sections and then taken in batches to the minister for signing after investigation and verification had been concluded.

Also speaking on the issue in an interview with Daily Trust, the Executive Secretary (ES) of the Federal Government Staff Housing Loans Board (FGSHLB), Dr. Hannatu Adamu Fika, said the board had identified land title as one of the major challenges facing housing development.

Dr. Fika said, “World over, you can’t have a mortgage without a perfect title. To facilitate titles, we have to work with state governments and the FCT.”

In his reaction, the FCT Director of Land Administration, Adamu Jibrin Hussaini, in an exclusive interview with Daily Trust, said the FCT Administration (FCTA) had prepared and signed 11,263 C-of-O for various degrees of properties in and around Abuja which had been left uncollected by their bona fide owners.

The director revealed that the certificates so far prepared and ready for collection were enormous; cutting across plots of land in all the districts of the capital city, some satellite towns, as well as properties under the Sales of Federal Government Housing Scheme.

Hussaini further said some of these title documents have been ready for collection since 2005 and were in the vaults, but that the owners have not shown up to claim them, and that because of that, the FCTA has concluded arrangements to advertise all unclaimed C-of-O in two national dailies for owners of such titles to come forward for collection.

He said, “The FCT Department of Land Administration has sorted out 11,263 C-of-O that are uncollected from its vaults, and these are documents that can be used for various transactions, including collateral.”

He wondered why the documents which could be used to improve commercial activities across the country with positive multiplier effects, including generation of employment to the teeming population of the citizenry, had been left in the vaults.

Hussaini emphasised that everything being equal, after payment of requisite premium fee, the production and processing of C-of-O takes an average of four weeks, and added that the current FCTA signed thousands of C-of-O even to the end of its first tenure and has since commenced in this dispensation.