2023 budget: Paucity of funds threatens housing loans for workers ― FG

The Federal Government Staff Loan Board has disclosed that it does not have sufficient capital allocated to it in the 2023 budget to meet the huge pile of requests before it.

Executive Secretary of the Board, Ibrahim Mairiga gave the hint when he appeared before the Senate Committee on Establishment to defend the budget of the Board for 2023.

Lamenting over the paucity of capital funds; Mairiga explained that the Board has to depend on a paltry N2.5billion in the Service Wide Votes.

He said the money can only cater for 200 people against a total of 35,000 applications valued at roughly N67 billion.

The Executive Secretary also expressed similar concerns over the amount of N65 million allocated as overheads to the Board which he said is not going to be sufficient to fund the monitoring activities of the Loan board.

He said the housing loans are on a first-come, first-served base even though applicants are not expected to be more than 50 years old and must have been confirmed in the Civil Service to qualify for the facility.

Speaking, the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Establishment and Public Service, Ibrahim Shakarau noted that the matter needs urgent attention.

He said his Committee will look for ways to increase the purse of the Board even though he admitted that it might be extremely difficult to achieve.

This was as the National Salaries and Wages Commission raised similar concerns over the paucity of funds which it said has rendered it “incapacitated” to effectively carry out its mandate.

Defending the agency’s budget for 2023, the Commissioner for Compensation, Moji Yahaya Kolade said there was no way the Salaries and Wages commission with less than N1 billion appropriation can effectively monitor the disbursement of an N4.99 trillion wage bill.

She lamented further on how the lack of funds has made it impossible for the Commission to carry out routine salary inspections.

But despite the paucity of funds, the Commission said it will need to recruit more hands and centralize its official building to enhance its overall performance.

A total of N986m is allocated to the Commission for both overhead and capital in 2023.

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