The Federal Government says many federal civil servants are effectively barred from accessing government housing-loan schemes because their take-home pay is already mortgaged to multiple short-term lenders, leaving them ineligible for additional credit, Hajiya Salamatu Ahmed, Executive Secretary of the Federal Government Staff Housing Loans Board, told the Permanent Secretaries’ Quarterly Forum with union leaders.
“Let me tell you why workers may have difficulty in accessing these loans. Majority of them have already mortgaged their salary by taking series of loans from these agencies that operate ‘sharp loans’. So, at the end of the day, there is no way you can propel them to pay the housing loan. This is very sad,’’ Hajiya Salamatu Ahmed said, according to the News Agency of Nigeria.
Ahmed said the board has increased the loan ceiling to ₦20 million for senior workers and introduced a special housing loan window for officers on Grade Levels 8–14, but that these changes are being undercut by heavy, overlapping deductions from commercial lenders and quasi-governmental saving / loan schemes. She said the board is pursuing partnerships with mortgage institutions and private developers “to make houses more affordable for civil servants,” and stressed that structural constraints on workers’ disposable income are the single biggest bottleneck to roll-out of the government scheme.
Patience Onyekunle, Permanent Secretary of the Service Welfare Office, opened the forum and framed the engagement as an attempt to strengthen formal dialogue with unions on staff welfare, industrial harmony and productivity. Mrs. Onyekunle said the discussion was designed to: deepen social dialogue; align welfare programmes with the Federal Civil Service Strategy and Implementation Plan (FCSSIP 2021–2025); and advance a suite of welfare measures now under implementation. She outlined those measures to delegates as including group life assurance for federal workers, the President’s ₦750 billion pension bond bill before the National Assembly, the planned revival of the Nigerian Social Insurance Trust Fund (NSITF), free medical services at the HCSF complex, a review of recognition and reward policies, and an open-door policy with unions. All of those, she said, are intended to shore up worker welfare while the housing board addresses structural loan constraints.
On the NSITF front, Mr. Usman Tumsah, Deputy General Manager of NSITF, said the Fund is simplifying its claims process and digitising applications to speed compensation in workplace-accident and death cases. Mr. Tumsah explained that while federal civil servants are automatically covered under the employee compensation scheme, several Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) have not completed necessary documentation, and the Fund is conducting targeted sensitisation to close that compliance gap.
Union voices at the forum underlined the practical consequences on workers. Mrs. Chika Ukachukwu, Chairman of the Ministry of Information and National Orientation Union, commended the government’s initiatives but urged tangible improvements to the National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA) rollout, warning that delays and administrative bottlenecks in healthcare reimbursement are discouraging civil servants from seeking timely care.
What officials say is driving exclusion
Ahmed and other officials singled out three often-linked drivers of exclusion from the housing scheme:
Serial, high-cost deductions: Ahmed said many workers have multiple payroll deductions from commercial lenders and salary advance schemes that leave no room for mortgage repayment. She described some operators as offering “sharp loans” that effectively mortgage salaries.
Insufficient net pay for long-tenor loans: Ahmed argued that where salaries are already pledged to short-tenor products, lenders and the housing board cannot structure long-term mortgage repayments that match asset lives.
Documentation and MDA compliance gaps: Mr. Tumsah and Onyekunle both flagged MDAs that have yet to meet administrative or documentation requirements that would unlock worker access to social insurance and compensation products that underpin creditworthiness.
Board response and next steps
Ahmed said the Housing Loans Board is pursuing multiple remedial tracks: tightening eligibility verifications to exclude employees already over-levered, fast-tracking partnerships with mortgage institutions to provide longer-tenor, lower-monthly-repayment products, and piloting direct developer partnerships to lower unit prices for civil servants. She also said the board will intensify financial-literacy outreach to reduce take-up of predatory short-term credit among junior staff.
Union reaction and outstanding questions
Union leaders welcomed the increased ceiling and the GL 8–14 window but pressed for concrete timelines and transparent criteria. Mrs. Ukachukwu asked the government to publish an implementation timetable and to link the loan scheme to effective reforms in staff payroll practices so that deductions are standardised and capped.
Bottom line: Government officials told the forum that policy changes—higher ceilings, special windows, and developer partnerships—are in place, but they said those reforms will not translate into broad access until the problem of serial salary deductions is tackled and MDAs complete documentation and compliance tasks that underpin eligibility.
