FG tasks home seekers on NHF, commissions FMBN Rockview Estate
The Federal Government has tasked Nigerians who desire to buy or build their own homes on participation and/or contribution to the National Housing Fund (NHF) scheme which provides cheap and easy access window to homeownership for mid-low income earners.
The NHF scheme launched about two decades ago requires only 2.5 percent monthly contribution from workers and this qualifies them for a mortgage loan of up to N15 million repayable within a period of 30 years at 6 percent interest rate.
The government says it is imperative for workers to avail themselves of the opportunities presented by the NHF scheme which is now fully subscribed to by 30 states of the Federation and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).
Lands, Housing and Urban Development Minister, Akon Eyakenyi, who stated this in Abeokuta, Ogun State, at the commissioning of the Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria (FMBN) Rockview Housing Estate, disclosed that, though the scheme was specifically designed for low and medium income earners in the formal sector, it has been expanded to integrate the informal sector through cooperative societies in order to place affordable housing within the reach of all Nigerians.
The 196-unit FMBN Rockview Housing Estate is a product of public –private partnership (PPP) between FMBN and Sparklight Property Development Company Limited which the minister noted as another exemplary feat recorded in the long partnership the firm has developed with the FMBN in housing estate development.
“The 196 housing units here delivered add to the total of about 3,000 housing units delivered through the NHF scheme in Ogun State in 17 residential housing estates developed in conjunction with public and private estate developers; these estates have contributed, not only to meeting housing needs of residents of the state, but also to creating gainful employment”, the minister said.
She disclosed that in order to sustain the legacy of the NHF, her ministry, on behalf of the Federal Government , had taken steps to overcome the major hindrances to increasing housing stock by adopting of the National Policy on Housing and National Policies of Urban Development which prescribe a private sector-driven framework for housing delivery.
“Under this policy regime, government provides the enabling environment to facilitate entrepreneurial participation for transformational housing delivery”, she said, urging Nigerians yet to participate in the NHF scheme to do so in order to own their own homes in the best means possible which the NHF provides.
CHUKA UROKO