Thursday, August 7, 2025 - The anti-graft agency’s Chief Executive said yesterday that investigations have begun into the acquisition of estates across the country.
Ola Olukoyede said: “What we have been able to find out is
that most of these estates are funded by civil servants who have stolen money.”
He spoke in Abuja at a “policy dialogue on critical issues
affecting Nigeria’s real estate ecosystem”.
Olukoyede said the commission had secured the forfeiture of
15 of such properties.
He said some of the civil servants abandon the properties
when they no longer have access to illicit funds, with some buildings left
uncompleted for as long as 20 years.
He called for the operationalisation of the Beneficial
Ownership Register to provide information about those behind corporate entities
and investments, particularly in real estate.
He said: “I have set up a team. We will start visiting all
the housing estates, not just in Abuja, but across Nigeria. We want to know who
owns what.
“It will shock you that some of these estates have been
abandoned for between 10 and 20 years.
“They just take the construction to a certain level and
abandon it, and nobody knows what is going on.
“What we have been able to find out is that most of these
estates are funded by civil servants, who have stolen money.
“So, the moment they leave public service and the money is
no longer coming, they abandon the estates.
“The developer will now begin to look for investors to
support them in completing the projects.
“That is one of the things we have discovered in some of
these abandoned estates, and we have taken steps to begin to move against some
of those estates.
“In recent times, we have had cause to file for the
forfeiture of about 15 of them. We have got orders of interim forfeiture,” the
EFCC chairman said.
Olukoyede, along with Nigerian Bar Association (NBA)
President Mazi Afam Osigwe (SAN) and the Bureau of Public Procurement (BPP)
Director-General Dr. Adebowale Adedokun, called for reforms of land
administration.
They blamed the current chaotic and archaic system for the
real estate sector becoming a fertile field for money laundering activities.
The trio called for urgent reforms that will allow for
closer scrutiny and the deployment of technologies for seamless transactions
that will emphasise transparency and accountability on the part of players in
the sector.
The event addressed three key thematic areas, including:
“Tackling illegal property sales, fake developers and unlicensed agents;
Investment compliance and anti-money laundering, and Access to legal remedies.”
Olukoyede added: “What we have discovered is that the issue
of money laundering is very rampant among estate developers. It is extremely
rampant.”
He underscored the difficulty in accessing cheap and
low-interest funding, saying it accounts for why real estate becomes easy for
people to launder stolen money.
“There is no one who will go to any bank in Nigeria today
and borrow money to invest in real estate and make a profit.
“Real estate development takes time; sometimes you are on a
project for five years.
“So, if you have gone to a bank to take a loan at over 30
per cent interest, how do you survive?” the EFCC Chair said.
He said money laundering will persist where the real estate
sector is not well-regulated, with funds made available to investors at
single-digit interest rates.
“Let the government set aside special funds for real estate,
from which loans could be given at a single-digit interest rate.
“Government organisations like the Federal Mortgage Bank,
Aso Savings and Loans should be made to play this role,” he said.
Olukoyede called for the adoption of an economic system that
will de-emphasise cash transactions as a measure against corruption and money
laundering activities.
He said: “A thousand EFCCs will not be able to scratch the
surface of our corruption problem if we continue with our cash-based economy.
“We have to do something about this credit transactional
system. We can’t move forward.
“We should look at countries where this system works and
replicate it here.
“You want to buy a car, it is cash. You want a house, it is
cash. Everything you do in Nigeria is by cash. We can’t build an economy that
way. I once told them this at the National Assembly.”
He disclosed that some of those being investigated and
prosecuted by the EFCC admitted to diverting public funds just because of
societal pressure.
“Some will come to you and say: ‘Yes, I did it. There is no
other way to pay my children’s school fees; there is no other way to survive.
Please, I am at your mercy.’ At that point, the investigator will become
helpless.”
He said he has encouraged his staff members to patronise the
Credit Corporation, established by the Federal Government and urged all to take
advantage of its services.
Olukoyede urged real estate developers to learn to play by
the rules so as not to run afoul of the law and ensure they engage in due
diligence to enable them to gather sufficient information about their clients
and customers.
Osigwe, who identified the many anomalies in the sector,
called for reforms to ensure enhanced regulation of the industry.
He noted, for instance, that it is only in the country that
it requires the owner of a property to produce his or her certificate of
occupancy (C of O) before the ownership of such property can be confirmed.
“I can sit down here and, with the payment of the
appropriate fees, confirm the ownership of a property in the United Kingdom.
But, I can’t do that here,” Osigwe said.
The NBA President noted that the current process of land and
property administration is not only cumbersome but also archaic.
He advocated for the deployment of technologies to ensure a
seamless and transparent system, arguing: “We must tell ourselves that the
present system is not working and cannot work.”
Adedokun noted that public sector funding accounts for a
greater percentage of housing estate projects being undertaken across the
country.
He said that to curb money laundering in the sector, there
is a need to address how public funds are being utilised to provide goods and
services to the people.
The BPP boss stressed the need for accountability and
transparency in the manner in which funds are sourced for real estate
investments in the country.
He said: “What we are doing now in collaboration with the
Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) is to say that, if you are awarded a
contract, we want to measure that contract with actual performance.
“What is to be done to prevent diversion of public funds is
by tightening the procurement process and how projects are implemented, because
the difference between the actual cost of the project is what leads to people
having funds to launder.
“That difference that we cannot account for is what gives
people funds to launder. Since they cannot store such funds in banks, they have
to look at an alternative way to store the money.
“And today, because the real estate sector is poorly
regulated, it is very easy for anyone to throw money into it.”
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