Civil servants in the South-South have expressed disappointment over the difficulty in accessing housing loans from the Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria (FMBN).
The workers, in a survey conducted by The Tide’s source, said the conditions for getting the loans were too stringent and had hindered them from accessing them.
They called on government to devise other means of improving the scheme, including relaxing the conditions to enable workers to access loans from the bank to build houses.
A staff of the Federal Ministry of Information in Cross River, Mrs. Enawan Effiom, told the source in Calabar that she had approached the FMBN to access funds to build a house.
Effiom said she was disappointed to be told that she could not access the loan, except she came with a third party who should be a property developer.
The Grade Level 14 officer said on making further enquiries she was given the phone number of a developer who was based in Uyo, Akwa Ibom State.
According her, she was told that it was her responsibility to bear the cost of the developer’s movements to inspect the building site if she eventually secured the loan.
“This is outrageous because it simply means that if I need say N2 million or N3 million to build a two-bedroom flat, the cost will eventually rise by the time I finish bearing such additional costs. Like many other civil servants, I became discouraged.
“I have also tried the ones built by the Federal Government that workers are expected to apply for. I abandoned the effort because the requirements only favoured the rich and very senior civil servants,” she said.
According to her, the houses are usually built at the outskirts of the State Capital.
“The ones for this state are located between Calabar and Odukpani.
“The inhabitants have faced so many security challenges because of the location. cannot leave there in this era of insecurity,” she said.
Effiom said that it was easier to obtain a loan from a commercial bank to build a house than getting it from FMBN.
She, however, called on government to attach less stringent conditions that would encourage workers access the loan to be able to build houses of their own.
The Coordinator, National Directorate of Employment (NDE) in Delta, Mr Sylvanus Onyeogo, said in Asaba that the stringent conditions for accessing loan from FMBN has remained discouraging to civil servants.
Oneogo told the source that he applied for a N5 million loan sometime ago while serving in Bayelsa, to enable him complete a housing project, but it was not realisable.
“I owned a piece of land that I wanted to develop then and I needed N5 million to augment what I had to build the type of house I wanted.
“I applied and all what they demanded from me, though stringent, l presented to them, but rather than approve the N5 million I requested, they approved N2.5 million for me.
“It was tough for me and I rejected the money. I rather sourced funds from our cooperative society to complete my project,” he said.
He said though the fund was accessible, the approvals may not meet the subscriber’s need.
On his part, the Federal Controller of Housing in Delta, Mr Victor Uduokhia, said the first phase of the housing estate built by the Federal Government at Issele-Azagba, had been fully subscribed for.
He said, however, that he was not certain whether or not the subscribers sourced their funds directly from FMBN or from other sources.
“As we speak, the first phase of the low cost Federal Government Housing Units at Issele-Azagba have been fully subscribed for.
“We are in the second phase on same site and work have reached advanced stage,” Uduokhia said.
In Rivers, a respondent complained of poor housing programme for the civil servants in the state.
A staff of the State Ministry of Information, Mr Kelvin Nengia, said: “since I came into the Civil Service in 2008, not much has been done in the area of providing housing for civil servants.
“The last time the government had a raffle draw for housing at Iriebe, Oyibo Local Government Area, was around 2009.
“Since then, nothing has been heard of the programme until recently when they gave loans to some workers in 2021,” he said.
A staff of the state-owned Radio Rivers FM Station, Mr Stanley Job, however, said that the State Gvernment had granted loans to its workers, though not enough to build houses.
Job said about 30 workers in the station received housing loans in 2021.
According to him, some civil servants in Rivers State Television also obtained the loans.
“They were given about N1 million each, which is not enough to build a house. The most the money can be used for is to acquire land,” he added.
Job urged the government to partner with private investors to drive the housing programme in the State.