The Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives Mr Benjamin Kalu has stressed the need for the Nigerian government to promote public/private partnership to optimize the National Housing Fund NHF scheme.
This according to the deputy speaker is to enable Nigerian workers to own homes.
His remarks were sequel to a motion by a member from Adamawa State Mr Zakaria Nyampa on the need to investigate non-remittances to the National Housing Fund and utilization of the fund from 2011 till date.
Kalu added that the partnership would also enable the country to get resources from both the government and the private sector.
Leading the debate, the mover of the motion Mr Zakari Nyampa, stated that from an assessment of the performance of the National Housing Fund in Nigeria carried out by the Central Bank of Nigeria, the analysis of survey returns revealed that one in every five disbursed loans went into default despite the slight improvement of 20.9 percent witnessed in 2014.
Mr Nyampa said various reasons were provided for the high default rate experienced, which according to him includes the demise of the mortgagor,
the unwillingness of the customers to repay, nonpayment by the employer and lack of constant follow-up on the mortgagor, amongst others.
He expressed concern that there seems to be a gross default in the utilization and remittance of the National
Housing Fund which constitutes an offence under section 20 of the NHF Act;
Adopting the motion, the house resolved to set up an Ad-hoc Committee to investigate the matter and report back for more legislative action.
Dominica Nwabufo
