The Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Minister Muhammad Bello on Monday said land allocation in Abuja will no longer be easily available for individuals.
The Minister said land allocation is no longer business as usual in the FCT.
Findings by the administration, Bello said, revealed how people allocated land turn around to sell the land after years instead of developing it.
He spoke at the 20th edition of the President Muhammadu Buhari Administration scorecard series (2015 – 2023) held in Abuja.
Bello said President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration is concerned about infrastructural development. He added: “So we realised that a secondary market was just created, allocations would be made and people will have papers and a secondary market is created and at the end of the day nobody gets to build anything.
“The idea of land is for you to build. And that is why we preferred to develop infrastructure and then provide access then to build lands.
“What is really happening now is that the template has to change. Now in a system where you get land and you go on a green field that there is infrastructure and you build, it is no longer possible”.
He emphasised that land would now be given to private developers to build estates for rapid development of the nation’s capital.
Bello explained “One of the most difficult assignments of an FCT Minister is land matters. I have spent a lot of time with my team to see how we can enhance the situation with land.
“But the reality is land in Abuja is no longer going to be available and easy as it was twenty years ago when people were being invited to get land so that they can develop the city. There is no land in an area where you can develop and many of us have personal experiences where previous administrations allocated land in an area where twenty years down the line you don’t even know where the land is, there is no access.
“All the areas in Phase 1, 2, 3 have been allocated even before this administration came in, so any new land is going to be phase 4 and 5.
“And even infrastructure in some parts of phase 1 has not been completed. It doesn’t make sense for you to give people a sense of hope that they have a piece of paper allocation for an area that will take them a lifetime to even get access to it.
“What do we do, we are now encouraging the private sector to develop mass housing through direct mass housing allocation for them to put up buildings and work out with off-takers who will take the land. So, this has been done directly by the government through the cooperative society of ministries, and departments or by private sector companies and now through the land Swap system where we open up a new district and you allow the private sector to develop and they sell the land and the building”.
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