National Housing Fund And The Stolen Billions.

The National Housing Fund (NHF), like other interventionist administering programmes, has become a subject of abuse and fraudulent practice.

Recently, the managing director of the Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria (FMBN), Mr Gimba Ya’u Kumo, raised the alarm that those “unscrupulous employers” had milked the fund dry to the tune of N100 billion.

This was at a time when Senate president David Mark literally cursed pension fund managers, accusing them of living off blood money.

Some contributors to the housing fund earn as little as N3, 000 from which they are expected to contribute 2.5 per cent or N75 monthly. With good management over a period of time, it is believed that such people would be able to possess their own homes.

But the sad truth is that in most cases the contributed money never gets remitted to the appropriate destination. By implication, the dream of home ownership for the poor is dashed.

It is callous for employers, who dutifully deduct employees’ salaries in the name of contributory funds, to shut down their consciences by either not remitting same or under-remitting.

The excuse has been that the labour unions are against such deductions. But this does not hold water due to their unwillingness to make available the remittance schedules, including details of individual contributions.

The situation has reached a critically unacceptable level, compelling the FMBN to solicit police intervention in the matter.

Same can be said of the National Pension Fund, the National Health Insurance Scheme and other ordinarily laudable schemes left to suffer in the hands of cruel predators. Worse are those which are now defunct but in possession of people’s contributions.   

According to Senator Mark, pension managers are some of the richest and “untouchable” members of the society. But if truly the mismanagement of these funds was a “blush on our collective conscience”, as he said, then, such people should be brought to book. 

The picture is even more awful when we consider those that have died without owning the houses they were paying for or receiving their pensions.

In saner climes, where mortgage funds are crucial for low-income earners to own shelters, any underhand dealing is viewed very seriously.  The FMBN owes contributors an obligation to recover the outstanding money probably resting in some private bank accounts.

It is high time the federal government and its anti-graft agencies stepped up the anti-corruption crusade, especially where Nigerians on the lower rung of the societal ladder are the victims.