Mr Isaac Ighure, a former Editor-in-Chief of the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), has urged for greater information on the National Housing Fund for government officials so that more people might benefit from the plan.
In a telephone conversation with NAN on Saturday in Lagos, Ighure, a retired government worker, also advocated for a review of mortgage rules owing to inflation to accommodate low-income civil servants.
He stated that he resigned seven years ago but had to use high-interest commercial bank loans while still in service to buy a government home in Abuja due to insufficient information.
He bemoaned that after 35 years of excellent service to the country, he received an NHF return of approximately N500, which he joked could scarcely buy decent quality pepper soup.
He claimed that the reason for his modest reimbursement was because deductions from his NHF contributions were discontinued since he became a directo.
“I then realized that I did not urge them to continue deducting since the Executive Director level is intended to be administrative or political.” So, after you reach the level of director, deductions stop? I had no idea.
“At the end of the day, what I received after 35 years was five hundred and something Naira,” he wondered.
During his service years, he stated it was difficult to obtain Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria (FMBN) loans, adding that “many individuals are not even aware of what to do under the NHF.”
The government should raise awareness and even educate or enlighten workers on the benefits of the fund.
“It would have been OK to raise the value of monthly deductions, but with the value of the wage and the worthlessness of the income now, purchasing power is weak, so if you now jerk up the deductions, it would further weaken employees’ purchasing power.”
“While the goal is admirable, in order to reap the advantages, you must live.” “The government must consider what it can do to make it simpler for people to buy their own housing,” he added.
He bemoaned the soaring prices of construction supplies and land, which had reduced employees’ capacity to build their homes, in contrast to the past, when government servants could build gradually.
He advocated for longer-term, low-interest mortgages, which are common in other wealthy countries but not in Nigeria.
“When it comes to housing, workers are severely disadvantaged.” Every worker need accommodation, and even when the government constructs some low-cost housing, the affluent buy it up and rent it out at ridiculous rates,” he remarked.
Mr Deji Idowu, a former broadcaster from the Nigerian Television Authority (NTA), told NAN that the government’s NHF program was cloaked in secrecy, which encouraged fraud.
Idowu stated that he retired from NTA at the age of 57 after 35 years of service, but was told that he could not receive a return of his payments until he was 60.
He stated that he joined NTA in 1983 and that his colleagues who retired at the age of 60 received between N500,000 and N600,000 as a reimbursement for their NHF payments after 35 years of service.
He said that after reaching 60, he returned to collect his refund but was stymied by bureaucracy.
He claimed he was expected to arrange payments through NTA’s in-house mortgage institution, but was given unrealistic restrictions such as making available pay stubs dating back roughly ten years and other inaccessible documentation.
“They then instructed me to go get my passbook.” I’m meant to have an NTA passbook. ‘I went to finance, and they claimed they couldn’t find my passbook,’ he explained.
He questioned why civil workers should be the ones to furnish documents that should be housed in the Federal Government’s budget and finance ministries, or IPPIS.
He said that NHF deductions from workers’ paychecks, like pension funds, were not idle but were being invested, and he questioned why workers did not get a profit on contributions.
Idowu, who is currently a lecturer at the University of Lagos, said that NTA employees were denied FMBN loans since their low pay disqualified them.
The former broadcaster advocated for greater openness and understanding of the plan, as well as higher pay for government officials to profit from NHF.
Some serving federal public officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity stated they did not comprehend the government’s housing policy.
One of the public workers stated that she just received a N5 million loan under the FISH scheme run by the office of the Head of Service.
“We don’t understand anything, but anytime they come documents for a house loan or plan, I just fill them out.” I have filled out several forms in the past, the most recent of which resulted in a N5 million grant to build my own house.
“They claimed the FISH (Federal Integrated Staff Housing Programme) initiative is under the Head of Service’s office,” she explained. (NAN)
