FG Inaugurates New Housing Scheme For Civil Servants

Civil servants in the coun
try  have been urged to re-dedicate themselves to the service of the nation.
President Muhammadu Buhari made the call at the recent ground-breaking ceremony of the 1, 000 housing units under the Federal Integrated Staff Housing (FISH) programme at Tafyi District.
The President was represented at the occasion by the Minister of State for Power, Works and Housing Alhaji Mustapha Shehuri.
The FISH programme is an initiative of the Office of the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation (HOS) in partnership with the American Building System International (ABSI).
He said that the initiative showed that the synergy between government and the private sector was the way to ensure the development of the country.
The HOS, Mrs Winifred Oyo-Ita, in her address of welcome, said the initiative was aimed at providing decent and affordable housing for civil servants in particular.
She added that the occasion signposts the development agenda of the president administration to address the housing challenges of civil servants in the country and to provide mass housing for Nigerians.
She stressed that though the provision of affordable and decent housing for Nigerians could be very challenging, it was surmountable.
Oyo-Ita noted that most civil servants lived in slumps, especially in the FCT and other major cities since they could not afford decent houses, because of the cost.
She, therefore, appealed to the Federal Government for a special intervention fund through the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), to be channelled to civil servants as loans, through the Federal Housing Loans Scheme.
She said that the loan would be recoverable from monthly salary payments of beneficiaries.
She also urged on socially responsible organisations that had yet to key into the FISH programme to do so and challenged housing developers to showcase their potential.
Oyo-Ita explained that the delivery of affordable houses under the programme would include group land acquisition from the Federal Capital Territory Administration and states across the country.
She added that it also included the provision of infrastructure and financial support through strategic partnership.
She stressed that the houses would be sold to only qualified civil servants, adding that no one would be short-changed.