PARTNERSHIP WITH FEDERAL GOVERNMENT OWNED HOUSING AGENCIES AND PRIVATE ESTATE DEVELOPERS IN THE PROVISION OF AFFORDABLE HOUSES FOR FEDERAL PUBLIC SERVANTS THROUGH THE LOANS SCHEME
The Board since its establishment has partnered with Public and Private Sector Housing Institutions and Agencies to facilitate ownership of houses by Federal Government employees. Recently, in line with Federal Government’s focus on social and affordable housing, a number of private estate developers have been allocated plots of land by the FCT Administration for the construction of estates for Public Servants in the FCT.
The Board in the discharge of its mandate has partnered with the underlisted housing agencies and private developers to construct affordable houses for public servants in locations of their choice nationwide.
FEDERAL HOUSING AUTHORITY (FHA)
The Board has continued to participate in the implementation of National Housing Programmes (NHP) as far back as the early 1980s to provide affordable low-cost houses to the Nigerian public servants who are low income earners. Through this programme, the Board partnered with the Federal Housing Authority (FHA) under the supervision of the Federal Ministry of Housing and Urban Development to construct houses in various estates in Lagos, Imo and the FCT. Through this partnership nine (9) Housing Estates in various locations across the country were constructed namely: Lagos (7 Estates), Abuja (1 Estate); Owerri (1 Estate) through the release of bulk funds to such Agencies to enable them construct houses, thereafter the Board will allocate such to public servants in lieu of cash loan. This partnership is on-going as some of the houses are still in the process of being handed over.
NIGERIAN ARMY POST SERVICE HOUSING SCHEME
The Federal Government Staff Housing Loans Board, partners with the Armed Forces Post Service Housing Scheme to enable them provide houses to their officers and men in addition to the routine loans advanced to individual officers and men of the Armed Forces. Of the twenty three thousand, nine hundred and sixty seven (23,967) beneficiaries of the housing loans from 1974, four thousand One Hundred and Seventy Seven (4,177) beneficiaries fall under the this partnership. Applications for housing loans to pay for houses being constructed under this scheme have continued to be received and form part of applications awaiting payment.
FEDERAL MINISTRY OF LANDS, HOUSING AND URBAN DEVELOPMENT: (NOW MINISTRY OF POWER, WORKS AND HOUSING)’
Through this partnership, a total of 250 houses had been constructed by the Ministry at Gwagwalada, FCT which were allocated to interested public servants and cost of such paid by the Board under the loan programme as funds become available based on first come first served basis.
INDIGENOUS PRIVATE ESTATE DEVELOPERS
The Board partners with private estate developers identified by public servants to construct houses for them at affordable cost. Eleven of such housing estate developers are into the construction of affordable houses for public servants especially in the Federal Capital Territory and Nasarawa State. Seven of the estates built by such identified developers recommended by Public Servants through their MDAs were commissioned and named after seven former Heads of Federal Civil Service. Most of the estates are located at Lugbe, Maraba, Giri junction, Pyakasa and Kurudu in the FCT and Nasarawa State.
We are anticipating that more estates will be commissioned in due course
NIGERIA MORTGAGE REFINANCING COMPANY
In order to raise additional funds for the Housing Loans Scheme, the Board has gone into partnership with the Nigeria Mortgage Refinancing Company to refinance active mortgages of the Board
PROCUREMENT OF HOUSES ALLOCATED THROUGH THE PRESIDENTIAL IMPLEMENTATION COMMITTEE (PIC) TO PUBLIC SERVANTS:
Arising from the monetization policy of Federal Government, public officers who were offered houses which they had occupied before the policy and could not pay are being considered for assistance under this Scheme. The FGSHLB from 2007 had continued to assist such beneficiaries to own houses allocated to Public Servants by PIC within the available means. However, when the Board was overwhelmed with the number of applications from the Public Servants, the ‘Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria (FMBN) was approached to step in and secure such houses for them. In this regard it was agreed that FMBN as one of our collaborations will intervene by raising funds to secure houses offered to public servants through the Presidential Implementation Committee
RENOVATION OF HOUSES
Most of the houses sold to the Public Servants through the monetization process are in a very deplorable state. In this regard a lot of Public Servants who had procured such houses applied for a loan through FGSHLB to renovate such houses. Such applications which were pending because of lack of funds were forwarded to FMBM who agreed to grant the loan for renovation at 8% interest rate through the FGSHLB to enable such officers carry out the renovation works. Five tranches of such loans have been released for the benefit of eligible workers.
PROCESSING OF HOUSING LOANS TO FEDERAL PUBLIC SERVANTS
The Board has continued with its mandate of processing of Housing loan to eligible public servants in the employment of Federal Government on availability of funds on first come first served basis to enable them own their homes. However, recently the Governing Board had directed that the processing of new applications should be kept on hold until the funding situation in the Board improves and the applications awaiting payments are cleared.
MORTGAGE REFINANCE
With the approval of the Governing Board and ratification of the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation, Mortgages provided at high interest rates to produce houses sold to Federal Public Servants under the monetization Policy have been refinanced at lower interest rate by the Board as when funds became available thereby reducing the burden of such loans on them. Similarly, houses sold to public servants in the states through the Presidential Implementation Committee (PIC) have been refunded by the Board on behalf of beneficiaries. However, a lot of requests are still pending due to fund requirements by the Board to address the needs of Public Servants.
BUY BACK OF LOANS/MORTGAGES
This is Mortgage Refinancing for the beneficiaries of the sales of Federal Government non-essential houses which are sold to sitting public servants nation-wide by the Federal Government. The beneficiaries of such houses who acquired housing loans from primary mortgage institutions and banks suffer financial embarrassment due to the high interest rate charged on such loans.
In order to assist beneficiaries of such loans, the Board bought back such loans from the Primary Mortgage Institutions (PMI) and Commercial Banks.
FEDERAL INTEGRATED STAFF HOUSING PROGRAMME (FISH)
Federal Integrated Staff Housing Programme (FISH) is a social housing programme under the supervision of the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation to create a platform for the delivery of affordable social housing to cater for the needs of core federal civil servants. The desire of the Head of the Civil Service to provide housing as a corporate social responsibility of government led to creation of Inter-Ministerial Committee comprising of Ministries of Power, Works and Housing, Federal Ministry of Finance, Federal Ministry of Water Resources, Federal Capital Territory Administration, Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Office of the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation, Federal Government staff Housing Loans Board, Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria (FMBN), Federal Housing Authority (FHA), Pension Commission (PENCOM) among others to look into how government can pull in resources and other necessary infrastructure in order to ensure the delivery of affordable houses for Public Servants in a sustainable manner. The main thrust of the FISH Programme is to secure adequate resources to cater for the mortgage needs of Federal Public Servants to enable them own their homes which will serve as motivation for productive service and thereby contribute in the delivery of the dividends of democracy for the benefits of all citizens. The programme was equally aimed at creating a pool of resources from both Private and Public Institutions so that the Board can be adequately funded to meet the housing needs of Federal Workers thereby strengthening the Board to deliver on its mandate.
Since the establishment of the FISH Programme, the Board has served as a major Stakeholder in the implementation of the scheme. Since the take off of its operation in 2017, the FISH programme has been able to address the housing needs of a sizeable number of staff in the core Federal Civil Service leading to the commissioning of an estate in Kurudu, FCT, Abuja in 2017. With the determination and commitment of the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation, the FISH programme is sustainable.
DELIVERABLES
Despote the limitations of funding to the Board, interest of public servants on the Loans Scheme has been on the increase on daily basis. This is largely because of the flexible nature in which the loan is obtained on comparison with other Mortgage Schemes available to Nigerians including public servants. With the interest rate of 3% and repayment period of a maximum of 25 years offered by the Board, the Scheme has been able to provide loan facilities to well over 32,000 public servants to own their homes in the FCT and all the States and Local Governments in the Federation thereby contributing to the reduction of the existing housing deficit in Nigeria since inception.
