By Sarah NEGEDU
The House of Representatives has called for proper regulation and involvement in the real estate value chain in the Federal Capital Territory to ensure adequate remittances of revenue to the government.
Chairman of the House of Investigative Ad-hoc Committee on Mass Housing/Real Estate Development in the FCT, Hon. Blessing Onuh, said this would also protect the sector from being overrun by money launderers.
Onuh, who made the call at a workshop organized by the ad-hoc committee in Abuja, observed that most real estate transactions are done in cash, thereby making the industry a safe haven for money laundry and illicit financial flows.
She said the administration currently loses about N600billion annually in revenue accruable to it from the real estate sector due to the lack of proper control of the sector.
In her words, “This committee’s preliminary findings indicated that the FCT has been losing an estimated N600billion annually in revenues accruable to it from the real estate sector.
“Take for example a house or land is sold for N500,000,000, the lawyer gets his legal fee, the agent gets his brokerage fee, the bank gets its transaction charges and the government gets nothing if the transaction is not presented for registration.
“And this kind of transactions go on in volumes every day unregulated, leaving government with the perennial struggles of meeting up its responsibility of providing modern amenities for its people. Many of these transactions are done in cash making the industry a safe haven for money laundry and illicit financial flows. The time to change the narratives is now.”
Onuh further urged the FCT minister to utilise his constitutional powers to enforce the provisions of the law establishing the territory for the common good of residents.
On his part, the minister, Malam Muhammad Bello, vowed to deal with fraudulent developers in the nation’s capital.
He maintained that despite the few challenges, “the public-private partnership still remains the only option available to us in meeting houses challenges that is why as we look into the future, we have committed the land for infrastructure in one of our district that is the Gwagwa district and subsequently, others will also come up with very strict regulations that protects the estate investors , protect the government, and protect the off takers as well as those financing the projects along the entire value change.”
Meanwhile, the Deputy Speaker, House of Representatives, Hon. Idris Wase, said the House would continue to make laws to stop all unethical practices in the real estate and other sectors.
