Shelter is one of the three basic needs of man and testimonies abound that workers performance are largely influenced by the welfare package provided to workers as corporate social responsibility of their employers.
It was for this reason that the Federal Government Staff Housing (Loans) Board was established by the Colonial Administrators in 1924 as the Africa Staff Housing Scheme, to grant loans to workers including expatriate employees in the Nigeria Federal Public Service.
With the enactment of an enabling Decree No. 6 of 1974 and No. 43 of 1977 as amended, now CAP FII of the Laws of the Federation, the Board became known as “Federal Government Staff Housing Board. It also took over all the assets, liabilities and responsibilities of the Africa Staff Housing Scheme.
For many decades, the Board functioned under the Federal Ministry of Finance and the Federal Ministry of Works and Housing. Thereafter, following the restructuring of Federal Government agencies in 1994, the Board was transferred to the Office of the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation to carry out the same mandate of granting housing loans to Federal Public Servants from all Ministries, Departments and Agencies, the Armed Forces, the Police, the Paramilitary, the Judiciary, Staff of National Assembly as well as Federal Government-owned Institutions of Leaning.
Today, over 32,000 public servants have benefitted from housing loans advanced by the Federal Government Staff Housing Loans Board since its inception in 1924 to enable them to own their homes anywhere in the country where they would live peacefully with their families during and after a successful career in the Federal Public Service.
This success story has been made possible as part of the Federal Government’s commitment to the welfare of its employees and partnership with relevant stakeholders in the public and private sectors involved in the implementation of the housing policies of the Federal Government.
