Nigeria's FCT Minister Nyesom Wike redirects spending to infrastructure as revenue spikes

Federal Capital Territory Minister Nyesom Wike said he has stopped approving costly overseas conferences for civil servants, arguing that funds would be better spent on visible projects such as road construction. He criticised trips to foreign conferences on land administration, claiming they waste resources and divert money that could be used for public infrastructure, and noted that his policy has made him unpopular among some civil servants.

Wike also announced that the FCT's internally generated revenue has risen dramatically, from about ₦9 billion a month when he took office to over ₦40 billion now. He attributed the increase to reforms that plug leakages and aggressively collect land‑related revenues, including ground rents and Certificates of Occupancy. The higher revenue, he said, is financing the infrastructure initiatives driven by his new budget focus, where roughly 70% of spending is allocated to capital projects.