NLC, FMBN Disagree Over N238bn National Housing Fund

The Nigerian Labour Congress, NLC and the Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria, FMBN disagreeing over the management of the contributory National Housing Fund.

The NHF is an offshoot of NHF Act of 1992 which mandates all employers in both the private and public sectors to make monthly remittances to the fund.

It is an initiative of the Federal Government aimed at mobilising funds for the provision of affordable residential houses for Nigerians.

The disagreement between the labour union and the nation’s apex mortgage institutions stemmed from recent threats by the former that it would pull out of the contributory funds, owing to its dissatisfaction regarding how the fund was being managed.

While speaking exclusively with The PUNCH, the Group Head of the Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria, Mrs Timan Elayo, countered claims made by the NLC President, Joe Ajaero, who told an investigative hearing organised by an ad hoc committee of the House of Representatives, that administrative bottlenecks in the process of accessing the mortgage scheme had created room for corruption in the system.

According to her, the FMBN had met ‘a large number’ of applications for the NHF, but was unable to meet all the requests due to funding constraints.

She added that a number of requests were denied access to mortgage due to the ineligibility of the applicants.

Speaking, the National Secretary-General of the NLC, Chris Onyeka disagreed with the FMBN’s claim that Nigerian workers were accessing mortgages through the NHF.

Onyeka accused the FMBN of not providing proper accounts of the funds to the intended beneficiaries of the NHF.