FCTA Generates N2bn, Grants 1,422 Approvals

Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA) says over N2billion was generated by the Administration’s Department of Development Control in 2023.

The department also created over 13,000 direct and indirect jobs and granted more than 1,000 building plan approvals within the same period.

The director of the department, Muktar Galadima, who stated this during an end-of-year media parley in Abuja, said that the department achieved N2,534,673,850.08 revenue generation from January to October 2023, representing 68.5 per cent of the N3.7 billion target given to it department for the year.

He expressed optimism that his department would hit the target before December, saying, “We are embarking on recovering the bills awarded so that people can pay before the end of this year so that we can meet our revenue target.”

Galadima stressed that the department received 1,765 building plan applications, and quickly processed and granted 1,422, thus facilitating the generation of 13,873 direct and indirect jobs on different construction sites across the Territory.

The director also disclosed that, in the course of ensuring that developments in the FCT complied with provisions of the Abuja Master Plan, 11,705 illegal structures and shanty colonies were dismantled within the period.

He said these achievements were possible due to measures the department put in place to facilitate timely building approvals and efficient monitoring and inspection of developments.

Some of them include the formation of a one-stop vetting team to treat the backlog of files and fast-track building plan approvals for plots in serviced areas and the establishment of regional offices to decentralize monitoring and enforcement activities in the area councils and satellite towns.

Others are the constitution of the committee on the prevention of building collapse in the FCT, which is expected to also proffer preventing modalities, including an institutional framework against building collapse; as well as the creation of a post-development audit pilot scheme.

Major activities the department carried out in collaboration with others include the removal of structures obstructing waterways at Lugbe, Jahi, and Lokogoma which has curtailed the hitherto perennial deadly floodings, removal of encroachments on rights of way and security black spots, clearing of shanties and illegal developments in Kabusa, Kasuwadare, Galadimawa, Mabushi and Gudu.