The House of Representatives at its plenary session on Tuesday, February 22, 2022, has raised a motion on the need to investigate the Non-refund of Contributions to Beneficiaries by the National Housing Fund (NHF).
The motion was raised by Hon. Eta Mbora said that the National Housing Fund (NHF) was established to mobilize funds to facilitate the provision of affordable housing for employed Nigerians and every Nigerian earning N3, 000 or more per annum is required to contribute 2.5 percent of his or her monthly salary to the NHF.
He said that the core mandate of the (NHF) is to facilitate the mobilization of funds for the provision of Houses for Nigerians at affordable prices, ensure easy access to loan facilities to Nigerians for building, purchasing of improvement of residential Houses, provide incentives for capital markets to invest in property development and provide long-term loans to Mortgage Institutions for lending to contributors to the fund.
The Hon. said that the National Housing Fund (NHF) Act provides that refund shall be made to contributors who did not obtain a housing loan while in service and should be processed and paid within three (3) months of receipt of the application for a refund.
He is Concerned that some Ministries, Departments, and Agencies do not remit deductions from contributors’ salaries to Managers of the fund as stipulated by the Act, hence contributors who are mostly civil servants, are often oblivious of remittances made on their behalf while in service until the time of their retirement.
Also Worried that retirees who applied to the Federal Mortgage Bank and the National Housing Fund to be refunded have not been attended to in the last three years, resulting in endless delays of refund and non-payment of their refund.
The House urged Committee on Housing and Habitat to investigate the unnecessary delays and non-refund of retirees’ contributions to the National Housing Fund by both the Federal Mortgage Bank and the National Housing Fund.
OlalereTaiwo
For Head of Press:
Office of Senior Special Assistant to the President on National Assembly matters
