The Federal Government of Nigeria has been accused by the Housing Development Advocacy Network (HDAN) of illegally taking 40 percent of the National Housing Fund (NHF) that was initially contributed by workers. Festus Adebayo, the director of HDAN, revealed this information in an interview with reporters in Abuja. Adebayo said that the NHF, which is kept at the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), is intended to make contributions to good living places, but he lamented that the government, whose duty it is to defend the rights of the people, has changed the narrative.
According to him, the federal government has until the end of the month to reimburse all deductions or risk lawsuits from HDAN. They are making these claims in an effort to expose wrongdoing on the part of the government. They battled for NHF to be successful, and they supported their sacrifice. Nothing that the government will do will persuade an employee to stop contributing to the National Housing Fund, but we’ll make sure their funds are never taken without their consent.
NHF is made up of 2.5% of workers’ monthly salary.
HDAN strongly disagrees with the federal government’s decision to remove 40% of the NHF money kept in the CBN’s rental account. An executive order mandated the establishment of the National Housing Fund, to which all citizens of Nigeria are required to pay 2.5% of their monthly salary. Workers with 20 or more years of service are ineligible for this fund. There has been a lot of work put into getting a lot of states engaged, but according to the information you have, the federal government of Nigeria is already deducting 40% of the fund.
The protection of citizens and their possessions are, in their view, the government’s most important function. The only organization in the country is the government that is able to offer homes at a price that is reasonable given the current condition in the country, in which the cost of construction materials and other items have increased. The group lamented that the government of Nigeria, which is responsible for providing social housing, should not be taking 40% of the money that low-income employees in the country pay into a housing fund.
Government has failed in its duty of protecting the people – Adebayo.
Adebayo slammed the government led by President Muhammadu Buhari for ignoring its main job of protecting citizens in order to take advantage of them. He said that people usually look to it for comfort. He said that what people anticipate from the government is a strategy for providing low-income individuals homes, not a cunning plan to exploit money from them. This is not acceptable. According to him, HDAN has solid information that the money was borrowed to finance infrastructure development.
They were informed that the government collected most of the pension funds for infrastructure. He noted that their NHF funds are for people who want to acquire houses rather than for borrowing. Adebayo said it’s hard to estimate the fund’s total withdrawals because those in the know are on the run. He said 40% is debited, but the people who should pay the amount back are yet to respond. They recently reported that they withdrew 45% but later called to tell them that it is 40%.
All government agencies were ordered to have an account with CBN.
Therefore, the organization has requested that the government repay the Federal Mortgage Bank so that it may fulfil its role in ensuring that these individuals have access to housing through the National Housing Fund. The NHF was kept in various Money Deposit Banks (MDBs) until the federal government mandated that all government agencies have Central Bank of Nigeria accounts. Because of this, the CBN is currently in charge of that money. However, the government should refrain from borrowing or taking it as the money’s objective is so important. The individuals who contribute to it are struggling and need government assistance.
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