Business
Corruption In Housing, Pension Funds Worries Expert
An expert in the property and housing sector, Mr. Benjamin Oti, has expressed worries over the level of corruption that has been noticed in the administration of the Housing and National Pension Funds.
Expressing his views in respect to the administration of pension and housing funds in Nigeria in an interaction with The Tide in Port Harcourt, Mr. Oti who is a specialist in environmental management, and also member of the Nigerian Institution of Estate Surveyors and Valuers (NIESV) said that many retirees who were supposed to be beneficiaries of the pension funds proceeds had been disappointed over the years, as such funds are not properly invested for the benefit of contributors.
He said that at least 25 per cent of the pension funds would be reinvested in the housing delivery, that in no distant time that housing will not only be available, but will be affordable, particularly for that who contributed to it.
Oti decried a situation where multiple hundreds of billions of naira of pension funds was dumped at the stock market, which ought to have been used in provision of affordable housing, and urged federal government to redirect the use of the funds to favour housing stock in the scheme of things.
On the impact of National Housing Funds to Port Harcourt residents, the expert posited that meaningful impact is yet to be made in Rivers State, as compared to Lagos and Abuja, adding that funds is very vital in housing provision anywhere.
Corlins Walter