NAN-H-81
Housing
By Monday Ijeh
Abuja, Feb. 2, 2017 (NAN) The Head of Civil Service (HOS) of the Federation, Mrs Winifred Oyo-Ita, has urged civil servants to embrace Federal Government’s housing programme to enable them to own houses.
Oyo-Ita made the call on Thursday in Abuja at the opening of the 2017 Federal Integrated Staff Housing (FISH) finance workshop organized by her office.
She said the workshop with the theme, “Delivering Affordable Housing to Federal Civil Servants’’ was arranged for stakeholders to brainstorm on issues affecting construction finance and equity mortgage for home ownership.
Oyo-Ita said that the housing programme was an initiative of her office and was designed to bridge the funding deficit in the housing sector and uplift the welfare of civil servants.
She said that the FISH Property Fair organized by the office in December, 2016, attracted many developers with completed houses uploaded into the government’s housing pool.
According to her, more than 23,000 civil servants have registered as members under the Fish Cooperative Society Ltd. to be eligible to benefit from the programme.
“About 16,000 civil servants participated in the fair and chose houses of their choice according to the discounted prices on preferred locations.
“As at today, about 1,350 houses at various locations in Abuja and Lagos have been uploaded into Fish programme and allocation has commenced on first come-first-serve basis,” she said.
The HOS called on participants at the workshop to find ways of solving the housing challenge facing the country.
In his remarks, Mr Yemi Adelakun, Permanent Secretary, Common Services Office in the Office of the HOS, said that the workshop was aimed at bringing professionals together to discuss issues of housing.
He said that the FISH Inter-Ministerial Committee inaugurated by the HOS in 2016 had recorded tremendous successes, including the establishment of Fish Cooperative Society.
Adelaku identified exposure to foreign exchange fluctuations, access to land and legal titles as well as new building technologies as issues to be address at the workshop. (NAN)
IMC/OPI/OPI
Edited by Olisa Ifeajika