Muktar Galadima, the director of development control department of the Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA) has disclosed that more than two billion naira was generated by the administration in 2023.
He stated that the department also created over thirteen thousand direct and indirect jobs and granted more than one thousand building plan approvals within the same period.
Galadima stated this during an end-of-year media parley in his Wuse Zone 6 office, over the weekend.
According to him, the department achieved N2,534,673,850.08 revenue generation from January to October, 2023, representing 68.5 percent 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 end of this year so that we can meet our revenue target.”
Galadima stressed that the department received 1,765 building plan applications, 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 further explained that these achievements were possible due to measures the department put in place to facilitate timely building approvals and efficient monitoring and inspection of developments.
According to him, some of them include formation of one-stop vetting team to treat backlog of files and fast-track building plan approvals for plots in serviced areas and establishment of regional offices to decentralize monitoring and enforcement activities in the area councils and satellite towns.
Others are the constitution of committee on prevention of building collapse in the FCT, which is expected to also proffer preventing modalities, including institutional framework against building collapse; as well as the creation of post-development audit pilot scheme, he stated.
Galadima added that major activities the department carried out in collaboration with others include removal of structures obstructing waterways at Lugbe, Jahi and Lokogoma which has curtail 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.
The director also spoke on staff welfare, challenges and prospects of ths department.
On staff welfare, he revealed that in addition to monthly medical checks for staff and sporting activities, the department has institutionalized yearly appraisal itself, during which staff bonding is enhanced and awards are presenting to deserving staff to boost morale and improve productivity.
The Direcror, however, listed some of the department’s major challenges, including increasing cases of land grabbing, continuous harassment of staff while on duty by security agencies, non-resettlement of indigenous communities, leading to expansion of slums across the city, as well as inadequate and obsolete utility vehicles for monitoring and enforcement.
Other challenges he listed are bandoned buildings, serving as criminal hideouts, non completion of the Phase V Districts Landuse plan, non utilization of land after removal of squatter settlements, inadequate office accommodation, and slow adoption to ICT and lack of full automation of activities, among others.
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