7th July, 2017
Dr Hannatu Fika, the Executive Secretary of Federal Government Staff Housing Loans Board (FGSHLB), says the Federal Government has provided N100 billion `to bridge the housing gap through the department.
Fika made the disclosure in Abuja on Friday during an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN).
According to her, FGSHLB has changed the lives of 30,000 Federal Government workers who now own their houses through the Family Home Fund.
She explained that the Family Home Fund was meant to bridge the gap of 17 million housing deficit in Nigeria.
“We are happy that the present government has housing as one of its priorities and during the election campaigns they (politicians) promised that as many Nigerians as possible would get houses.
“Also, I am aware that the Ministry of Power, Works and Housing is building houses in all the states of the federation so that the Federal Government’s promises can be achieved.
“And the government allocated a whopping sum of N100 billion to us recently as “Family Home Fund’’ and this money will be able to reduce substantially what we have as housing deficit,’’Fika said.
She said the Family Home Fund had been in existence for two years under the Ministry of Finance to ensure that many Nigerians had their own homes with the fund.
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Fika said the board could access the fund as long as it could articulate its own needs because “ and no agency can draw on government fund like that without a programme as government’s monies revolve around programmes.’’
Fika said FGSHLB’s priority was to ensure that the federal civil servants had their own houses to encourage them to work effectively and willingly.
She said the FISH Programme and FGSHLB were under the super vision of the Office of the Head of Service of the Federation.
Fika said the board provided between three million naira and five million naira as loans to enable workers to buy houses depending on their ranks.
She said small amounts were deducted from the salaries of beneficiaries for the repayment of the loans, some of which had a tenure of up to 25 years.
Fika said that in view of this, the board needed more funds in order to provide the housing needs of workers.