The Civil Society Network for Good Governance has called on the Federal Government to sustain the gains made during the first term of president Muhammadu Buhari. The president and members of his executive spoke to newsmen at a Press Conference, held in Abuja following their Extraordinary General Congress, touched on the state of the housing sector vis a vis the strides made in the war against corruption.
In the words of the President of the organization, Barr Adefila Kamal, “housing is a major need of man, alongside food and clothing, and one of the key motivating factors of people who become corrupt in public service and private business is the quest to have this need met”.
Speaking on their assessment of the state of the sector, Barr. Kamal informed the media that the Network had “followed, with keen interest, the comprehensive reforms carried out in the housing sector under the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari. We note that, for the first time in the history of this country, there has been a silent revolution in the sector, as the government has revamped the Federal Housing Authority (FHA), Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria (FMBN). The government has also created the Federal Integrated Housing Scheme (FISH) to complement the good work of the Federal Government Staff Housing Loans Board, which is a specialist organization created to cater to the housing needs of public servants”.
He went further to argue that “as a government that is dedicated to rooting out corruption from our national psyche, providing affordable and qualitative housing for civil servants remains key to winning the war against corruption, and the Federal Government Staff Housing Loans Board had been doing its level best in that regard”. While noting that the board had received meagre funding, Barr. Kamal noted that his organization had carried out independent assessment of the board and other agencies in the sector, “and found that the board had in the last four years given loans to more civil servants, while the home renovation loan in collaboration with the FMBN is helping many civil servants to renovate their homes expanding the scope of beneficiaries “.
