The handling of the contributory National Housing Fund has been a point of contention between the Nigerian Labour Congress and the Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria.
The NHF is a byproduct of the NHF Act of 1992, which required all employers in the public and commercial sectors to contribute to the fund on a monthly basis.
The Federal Government launched the programme with the goal of raising money to build affordable homes for Nigerians.
The dispute between the workers union and the top mortgage lenders in the country arose from recent threats made by the former that it would withdraw from the contributing funds due to its displeasure with the management of the fund.
Exclusively speaking, the Group Head of the Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria, Mrs. Timan Elayo, refuted claims made by the NLC President, Joe Ajaero, who said during an investigative hearing organised by an ad hoc committee of the House of Representatives that administrative delays in the application process for the mortgage programme had made room for corruption in the system.
She said that although the FMBN has granted ‘a considerable amount’ of NHF applications, it was unable to grant all of the requests because of financial restrictions.
She continued by saying that a lot of requests were turned down for mortgages since the applicants weren’t qualified.
Oh yeah, employees are using mortgages, she added. That assertion most likely stems from the assumption that anyone who wants to acquire a mortgage can do so. Because of the number of Nigerians who would desire the homes and the amount of money we have available to distribute, this is not viable.
“You are aware that we cannot accommodate every request. First of all, a cash shortage will make it harder to fulfil demands. However, a sizable number are being addressed as best we can with the resources at hand.
Chris Onyeka, the National Secretary-General of the NLC, disputed with the FMBN’s assertion that Nigerian employees were gaining access to mortgages through the NHF.
Onyeka charged the FMBN with failing to give the NHF’s intended recipients accurate reports of the monies.
If people are using it, who are they? asked Onyeka. The issue is that these money are held someplace, and the select few who have access to them. It belongs to us. It must be reachable by us. There shouldn’t be anything that prevents us from using our money.
