Nigeria Property & Investment Watch — New material FCT land-administration development.
The Federal Capital Territory Administration says 26,272 Certificates of Occupancy have been signed under FCT Minister Nyesom Wike during the first three years of the Tinubu administration, a major acceleration in formal land-title issuance in Abuja. The disclosure was made on Sunday, August 16, 2026, by Wike’s Senior Special Assistant on Public Communications and Social Media, Lere Olayinka.
Why it matters: this is not simply an administrative statistic. A Certificate of Occupancy converts land rights into a more bankable asset because it can support mortgages, business financing, transfers and collateralisation. The FCTA says the 26,272 titles exceed the 8,697 C of Os produced and signed between 2010 and 2023, indicating a substantial reduction in a longstanding documentation backlog.
The operational change may be even more consequential. According to the FCTA, land allottees who complete the required payments can now receive their C of O within two weeks, with automated notifications introduced when documents are ready for collection. Many beneficiaries of the recent approvals had reportedly been waiting for more than a decade.
The FCTA also says it granted 2,521 Consents to Assign and 177 Consents to Mortgage over the same three-year period. Consent to Assign is required for formal property transfers, while Consent to Mortgage enables titled property to be legally pledged as security for financing.
The earliest credible source identified in this cycle is Lere Olayinka, Senior Special Assistant to the FCT Minister, whose August 16 statement was carried directly by the News Agency of Nigeria.
Use Minister Nyesom Wike image and Lere Olayinka, Senior Special Assistant to the FCT Minister, whose August 16 statement was carried directly by the News Agency of Nigeria.
Confirmed: 26,272 C of Os have been signed; the FCTA says processing can now be completed within two weeks after necessary payments; 2,521 Consents to Assign and 177 Consents to Mortgage have also been granted. Unconfirmed: the value of the underlying properties, how many titles relate to residential versus commercial land, how many beneficiaries have actually collected their documents, and how much additional bank lending has been unlocked by the reform.
