Kwara State Governor AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq on Monday flagged off the presentation of cheques to 463 beneficiaries of home renovation loan scheme of the Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria.
“This home renovation loan scheme is basically an initiative of the Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria that many of you have enrolled in. You have played your own role by enrolling in the scheme. That is you trusting the system to work for you. That is you playing your own role as patriotic citizens and as workers.
“For you to benefit from this loan however, your state government must stand as your guarantor. And we gladly did because we trust that you have also worked to earn our trust,” AbdulRazaq said at the event attended by civil servants from across ministries, departments, and agencies in the state.
Represented by the Deputy Governor Mr Kayode Alabi, the Governor promised to mobilise available resources and grab every opportunity to improve the wellbeing of the civil servants as well as the ordinary citizens.
“Without workers, nothing meaningful gets done. For this reason, we will always mobilise available resources and grab every opportunity to improve the wellbeing of the civil servants as well as the ordinary citizens. This event is another testimony of the resolve of this administration to grab every opportunity to make our workers happy,” he added.
“We are ensuring that workers across all cadres enjoy their promotion and the pay rise that comes with it. We have also approved training and retraining for workers, while offering support to those of you pursuing further degrees at home or abroad.
“We have also ensured decent work environment with relevant tools through completion of secretariat, purchase of new vehicles, and modern computers and accessories. We continue to support workers with health issues. We have also ensured that workers are paid as and when due as a matter of right.
“We are also considering other supportive measures to ease the effects of inflation on what you earn. For example, we are building a public school system that offers our children a standard that will be the envy of other states and a pride of our people. The recent recruitment of qualified and competent teachers is a bold beginning. We are following it up with school remodelling and reconstruction across the state.”
AbdulRazaq appealed to civil servants to continue to trust the government and work with the administration to build a sustainable future for all of Kwara people.
For her part, State Head of Service Modupe Oluwole said the present administration is doing everything possible to tap all available opportunities and resources from both governmental and non-governmental organisations for the benefit of the people.
“The scheme was designed especially for contributors to the National Housing Fund to benefit from their contributions on lower interest rates. Through the committed efforts of government, the Federal Mortgage Bank, not only approved the loan for all interested civil servants, who indicated their interests, but also made cheques for them,” according to her.
“I want to advise the beneficiaries of the first phase and those to benefit in subsequent batches to make use of the loan for the purpose for which it is meant for. A comfortable home for a civil servant, is no doubt a sine-qua-non for comfortable living which ultimately would lead to high productivity of such civil servant.”
Managing Director Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria Architect Ahmed Dangiwa, who was represented by the Deputy General Manager Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria Ibrahim Nafada, explained that the loan window affords Nigerians who are contributors to the National Housing Fund an opportunity to access mortgage loans to renovate or improve existing properties which are personally owned by them or through family ownership.
“Permit me to applaud the commitment and cooperation of the Executive Governor Mallam AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq and the Head of Service Mrs Susan Modupe in executing these documents promptly which has enabled the Kwara State civil servants to benefit from FMBN home renovation loan to the tune of N1,025,283,000 disbursed to 1,575 beneficiaries. Today, we are disbursing the sum of N303,750,000 to 463 beneficiaries,” he added.
Dangiwa also announced that the bank had approved a sum of N401,145,000 for 708 member of staff of Kwara State Universal Basic Education which will be credited to individual beneficiaries’ accounts after execution of all other conditions precedence to disbursement.
Modupe Joel
Chief Press Secretary to the Deputy Governor
