The NLC President implored the committee to take measures towards eliminating ensuring affordable and quality housing for Nigerians especially workers contributing to the NHF scheme in a bid to own homes.
The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) has threatened that it will pull out of the Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria (FMBN) contributory National Housing Fund (NHF) over the non-remittance of deduction made.
President of the NLC, Comrade Joe Ajaero, issued the threat when he appeared before the House of Representatives Ad-hoc Committee on Non-Remittance to the NHF and Utilisation of the funds from 2011 till date.
Ajaero explained that in spite of making the statutory contributions of 2.5 percent of annual salary to the NHF, many workers were unable to access the loan due to administrative bottlenecks, adding that the FBN also failed to send alerts to intimate civil servants on the status of their contributions and their monthly deduction.
“While the Act provides for 90 days from the date of application for the loan to disbursement, the experience by many workers is horrific as the undue delay in approving the loans has forced many workers to abandon pursuit of the loan.”
READ ALSO: Job Racketeering: Reps declare employment waivers as fraudulent, want it scrapped
The NLC boss further stated that “the immediate past Managing Director of FMBN, Ahmed Dangiwa, who is now the Minister of Housing and Urban Development, said he left behind N120 billion in the coffers of the bank.
“He said he was able to mobilise 249.1 billion to Nigeria’s housing fund, and increased subscription to 197,000 between 2017 and 2022.”
Ajaero therefore, urged the lawmakers to take drastic steps to remove the encumbrances to affordable and quality housing to enable Nigerians especially workers who make the most contributions to the NHF to own homes.
Responding, the Managing Director of FMBN, Madu Hamman, said the total amount of contribution from Ministries, Departments, and Agencies (MDAs) of government from 2011 till date is N238 billion, adding that individuals contribution from 2011 till date was N225 million, while the ministerial housing scheme was N34.5 billion.
Hamman however, asked for time to reconcile the conflicting documents from the ministerial housing pilot scheme, which was missing from the document the bank earlier submitted to the House Committee.
Reacting to the development, the Chairman of the Committee, Rep. Musa Bagos (PDP, Plateau), said that the discrepancies in the documents submitted by the MD Federal Mortgage Bank show a lack of sincerity and transparency in the housing scheme.
