FISH housing project: FG urged to mobilise contractors

Contractors are yet to be mobilised three months after the Head of Civil Service of the Federation, Mrs Winnifred Oyo-Ita assured civil servants that allocation of the Federal Integrated Staff Housing (FISH) homes would ‘soon take off ,’ our investigations reveal. Oyo-Ita who gave the assurance in July during an inspection of the completed Federal Mortgage Bank funded estates in the FCT said the FISH scheme aimed at ensuring provision of quality and affordable homes for the civil service workforce.

However, our findings reveal that nearly three months after Oyo Ita’s assurance, contractors have not been mobilised. Some subscribers who spoke to our correspondent in Abuja feared that delay has set, and has the capacity to threaten the objectives of the scheme.

The Civil Servants who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of being victimised said although government has shown remarkable sincerity by ensuring that various lands are allocated to designated contractors for construction of FISH houses, they however expressed the fear that if contractors are not urgently mobilized by government, the wealthy class will take advantage of the delay to approach the contactors and buy the houses, which they said are designed to be aff ordable to the low income earners. A coordinator responsible for coordinating subscription for FISH houses said: ‘Government has good intentions and we appreciate it, but if contractors are not quickly mobilised, there are so many non-civil servants who already have houses and who can pay the 30% upfront required by contractors.’

‘Businessmen are willing to pay the 30% directly to the designated contactors,’ he said adding that government’s delay in mobilising of contractors can lead to the acquisition of the homes by businessman some of who he said can acquire a handful with the intention of reselling them for profi t. ‘If this happens, the civil servants who are waiting for government to pay the 30% on their behalf will lose the houses,’ he explained. T h e y a g r e e d t h a t contractors are businessmen who are interested in profi t.

Th ey further explained that if government delays in paying the 30% required for allocation of plots to beneficiaries, the rich will take advantage of the delay and that means the purpose of the scheme will be defeated. They therefore urged the government to make haste to pay the 30% down payment required to ensure the sustenance of the scheme in the interest of securing low income homes for the civil servants.

Th ey expressed confi dence in the Buhari administration f o r c o m m i t m e n t i t s commitment to the quest for low income housing for civil servants. Th ey are however afraid that their dreams of home ownership may not come true unless g ove r n m e n t u r g e n t l y mobilises contractors to site for commencement of mass housing production. T h e y a d v i s e d government to put in place a regulatorymechanism to ensure that the houses get to those for whom they were originally intended.

Leave a Reply