By Laide Akinboade, Abuja

The Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Department of Development Control, at the weekend, revealed that it has generated over two billion naira in 2023.

The department also said it has created over 13,000 direct and indirect jobs and granted more than one thousand four hundred and twenty-two building plan approvals within the same period.

Director of the Department, Muktar Galadima, disclosed this during an end-of-year media parley at the office in Wuse Zone 6 Abuja.

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 its 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, 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.

Some of them include formation of a 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.

Major activities the department carried out in collaboration with others include 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.

Galadima 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 presented to deserving staff to boost morale and improve productivity.

The Director, 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 abandoned buildings, serving as criminal hideouts, non-completion of the Phase V Districts Land Use 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.