Breaking News
WIKE AND ABUJA’S CHANGING BUSINESS ENVIRONMENT
When the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) was ranked 31st in the 2023 Subnational Ease of Doing Business assessment, there was little indication that within a relatively short period, Nigeria’s capital would make a dramatic leap into the country’s top five business-friendly destinations.
Today, that story has changed.
FCT’s remarkable rise in PEBEC ranking reflects infrastructure renewal, land administration reforms, improved service delivery and a reinvigorated investment drive. While such rankings are the product of several institutions, reforms and measurable indicators, the FCT’s improved performance reflects the direction of the administration of the Minister of the FCT, Ezenwo Nyesom Wike, particularly its emphasis on infrastructure, land administration, institutional effectiveness, service delivery and private-sector investment.
Since assuming office, Wike has made infrastructure development one of the defining features of his administration. Across the capital, the construction, rehabilitation and expansion of roads have opened important corridors, improved connectivity and enhanced movement within the city and its satellite communities.
But perhaps equally consequential to Abuja’s investment environment has been the administration’s attention to land reforms and the restoration of discipline in land administration.
The Wike administration has taken a firmer approach to addressing longstanding challenges within the system. This has included measures to strengthen the integrity of land documentation, tackle abuses associated with land allocations, enforce development conditions and improve accountability in the administration of land.
The administration has also moved to address the long-running issue of Area Council land documentation and regularisation, providing a pathway for affected property owners to formalise their interests within the statutory framework of the FCT.
The introduction and enforcement of ground rent obligations, together with efforts to recover outstanding revenues associated with land and property, have also reinforced the principle that land administration must be accompanied by responsibility and compliance.
Beyond land and infrastructure, the FCT has also recorded progress in institutional areas important to businesses, including access to commercial justice, grievance-redress mechanisms and increasingly technology-driven public services. Functional Small Claims Courts, for example, provide businesses, particularly Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises, with a faster and less cumbersome route for resolving certain commercial disputes.
An important part of this emerging story is the role of Abuja Investments Company Limited (AICL), the investment arm of the FCT Administration.
Under the current administration, AICL has intensified efforts to promote Abuja as an attractive investment destination, engage domestic and international investors and create platforms that connect government opportunities with private-sector capital.
Through strategic investment engagements, partnerships and platforms such as the Abuja Business and Investment Summit/Expo, the company has helped draw greater attention to the commercial potential of the FCT. Its activities across real estate, agriculture, renewable energy, markets and other investment opportunities complement the administration’s wider economic development agenda.
Indeed, the real value of an ease-of-doing-business ranking is not merely the position occupied on a national table, but whether entrepreneurs and investors can feel the improvements when they seek land, register interests, obtain approvals, resolve disputes and interact with government institutions.
Nevertheless, moving from 31st to 4th within one assessment cycle is significant. It suggests that Abuja is moving in the right direction and that the combination of infrastructure renewal, land reforms, institutional improvements and investment promotion is producing measurable outcomes.
Under Nyesom Wike, these different elements are increasingly being brought together, while institutions such as Abuja Investments Company Limited are complementing the administration’s efforts by taking Abuja’s investment opportunities to the marketplace.
The latest PEBEC ranking therefore represents more than an improved position on a national table. It is an opportunity to consolidate reforms, deepen investor confidence and demonstrate what coordinated leadership and institutional performance can achieve.
From 31st to 4th, Abuja has made a remarkable leap. The challenge now is to sustain the momentum and make the nation’s capital not only a great place to live and work, but one of the best places to invest and do business in Nigeria.
Dr. Jumai Ahmadu, Director, Reform Coordination and Service Improvement Department, FCTA
