Federal Government to provide 30,000 houses for civil servants

The Federal Government has concluded arrangements to give no fewer than 30,000 federal civil servants mortgage houses. The beneficiaries would be civil servants who have registered with the Federal Government’s Integrated Staff Housing Programme (FISH.)

The Permanent Secretary in the office of the Head of Service (HoS) and Chairman of the FISH committee, Mr. Yemi Adelakun said in Abuja that so far, about 30, 000 civil servants have registered for the programme.

He appealed to the Federal government to consider a budgetary provision of N2 billion for the project while the office of the HoS would explore other sources of funding support to keep the programme on track.

The Guardian learnt that the HoS office is speaking with Shelter Afrique, an international organisation on housing matters and other stakeholders on equity financing while the Federal government is expected to boost the programme with N2 billion.

“The FISH programme is a key component of President Muhammadu Buhari’s campaign promise to Nigerians which the HoS is determined to execute to mitigate the effect of hardship faced by civil servants in the area of accommodation,” Adelakun said.

On measures put in place to avoid sharp practices by individuals and estate developers, Adelakun explained that the HoS is aware that some organisations have adopted several means to frustrate the scheme. He noted that the FISH committee has learnt from mistakes of the past and have put in place internal control mechanisms.

The beneficiaries are expected to contribute not more than one fourth of their salary monthly and payable directly to the FISH bank account to sign on to the programme. This is after paying a membership fee of N1000.