Why FCT Ground Rent Payments Surged
Ahead of the expiration of the 14-day ultimatum issued to ground rent debtors by the Federal Capital Territory Administration, landowners have continued to throng the office of the Abuja Geographic Information System (AGIS) to save their property from takeover.
Among the top government entities owing large sums are the Nigerian Navy, the Department of Petroleum Resources, the Nigeria Governors’ Forum, the Federal High Court, and the Federal Inland Revenue Service, all at risk of having their property repossessed.
State governments and their liaison offices in the capital — including Lagos, Kwara, Jigawa, Benue, Ondo, Adamawa, Osun, and Enugu — are equally listed as defaulters, as well as 34 foreign embassies.
The Department of Land Administration of the FCT in a publication on June 2, 2025, urged defaulters to fulfill their “obligations to the FCTA as stipulated in the covenanted terms and conditions of the Rights of Occupancy/Certificates of Occupancy”.
They added that the defaulters would have their land titles withdrawn and their land revoked if they failed to make the payments.
The publication had carried the names and title numbers of 3,383 defaulters owing ground rents between 10 and 43 years, down from the 4,794 defaulters whose land titles were revoked on March 13, 2025 and over 9,000 names published by the administration between September and October 2024.
When our correspondent visited the AGIS on Friday, security men had secured the entrance, preventing Sunday PUNCH’s interactions with debtors attempting to make payments, despite identifying himself as a member of the press.
No fewer than 100 defaulters were seen by our correspondent on a scattered queue at the AGIS office.
Sunday PUNCH gathered that there had been a “record-high” compliance following the notice by the administration.
“The compliance has been very high. You remember the task force sealed some offices and the President gave a 14-day ultimatum with penalties. Before that one expired, there was another publication with another 14-days grace period. So, there has been a rush to pay. It is a record-high compliance if you ask me,” a source in the AGIS office who declined to be named told Sunday PUNCH.
“People have started coming now, seriously. Even as of today. Do you see the circular? Some people are not owing much, but they have to come and pay the penalty,” a security officer at the gate told our correspondent.
Spokesperson for the FCT Minister, Lere Olayinka, said the 14-day ultimatum started on June 2.
He said, “We published the notice on June 2nd that they were given two weeks’ notice. Whatever decision that the government takes thereafter will be made public.”
SOURCE: The PUNCH
