Establishment of FISH Mortgage Bank will address housing deficit – Adelakun

In order to bridge the massive housing deficit in the country, Mr Yemi Adelakun, Permanent Secretary, Office of the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation has dropped the hint that in the nearest future, a Federal Integrated Staff Housing Programme, FISH Mortgage Bank will be established.

This, he said is in the hope of providing adequate funding at low interest rate for delivery of affordable housing to public servants whose affordability index is rather low.
Adelakun made this disclosure during the 2017 FISH Housing Summit tagged: “Innovative Strategies for Affordable Housing”, held recently in Abuja.

“We hope to enter into partnership with manufacturers of building materials for discounted volume prices to drive the cost of houses much lower.

We also hope that in the nearest future, a FISH Mortgage Bank will be established.
“All these efforts are geared to provide adequate funding at low interest rate for delivery of affordable housing to public servants whose affordability index is rather low.’’
Earlier, Head of Civil Service of the Federation, Mrs. Winifred Oyo-Ita also revealed that in the first quarter of 2017, over 30,000 potential off–takers have taken delivery of homes through FISH.

She said that the programme, which was a subset of the Federal Government mass housing scheme, provides the drive for the upliftment of federal civil servants’ welfare.
She added that the summit was a platform to engage stakeholders such as developers, financial institutions, donors as well as off-takers to discuss the options available for achieving a successful FISH programme.

The head of service noted that the Minister of FCT, Alhaji Mohammed Bello was making efforts to provide land for the execution of the FISH programme.
“The First major requirement for successful delivery of affordable housing to civil servants is land which represents about 30 per cent of the cost of houses.

“In order to eliminate or reduce the cost of land, applications were made to the ministry of the Federal Capital Territory for land in Abuja and to some states governors for land in their respective states.

She said the sustainability of the programme would depend on the ability of the off-takers to accept the houses and enable real estate developers recoup their investments.