By Chris Ochayi

ABUJA: To ensure transparency in remittance of deductions made by the employers from employees’ salary into their account, the Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria, FMBN, has introduced an electronic platform for collection of National Housing Fund, NHF, deductions from employers of labour.

The device simply called the NHF e-collection platform makes it possible for NHF deduction, collection and remittance to be done electronically by all designated commercial banks in Nigeria through their existing information technology structures.

Managing Director of FMBN, Mr. Gimba Ya’u Kumo, who disclosed this in Abuja, explained that once a designated NHF collection bank is issued instructions by an employer to pay monthly salaries to its employees’ bank accounts, the corresponding NHF components of the salaries will be automatically deducted and instantly channeled into a dedicated NHF collection account.

He said, “a payment schedule indicating the identity of each employee and amount contributed by the employee is also automatically generated and FMBN immediately credits each contributor’s NHF contribution account with the corresponding amount remitted for that month, the FMBN boss explained.

Kumo said “the e-collection platform will address a number of problems facing the NHF scheme, such as refusal of some employers to deduct their employees’ NHF contributions, failure of some employers to remit NHF contributions after deducting such contributions from their employees and failure of some employers to provide remittance schedules to FMBN. All these sharp practices enable some unscrupulous employers of labour to misappropriate NHF monies or even embezzle such funds.

“Essentially, the NHF e-collection platform will help promote transparency and accountability in the collection of NHF and make it possible for more eligible Nigerians to access NHF loans for building, renovation or purchase of residential houses.

“For example, the platform will make it easy for NHF contributors to check their NHF contributions using the NHF  e-cards on any ATM machines nationwide, the amount of money they have contributed to the NHF scheme and thus be in a position to know if their employers are making the appropriate NHF remittances as and when due.

“The NHF e-collection platform is embedded with features that secure contributors’ contributions and indeed the system instantaneously sends an SMS alert to the contributor’s mobile phone once the NHF deduction hits the NHF collections account.

In addition, each contributor is registered and issued NHF e-collection card with similar security features as the normal ATM card. An NHF contributor also has the option of using personal details to log-on to the FMBN web portal (www.fmbn.gov.ng) to view up-to-date records of his or her NHF contributions.

“However, no withdrawals can be made from the NHF account until the contributor satisfies the requirements for refund of contributions as specified by the NHF Act 1992”, he said.

He assured that the “NHF e-collection platform will go a long way in ensuring accountability on the part of employers as their workers can easily track remittance records based on the embedded system of instant alerts and on-line access to record of contributions that the NHF e-collection platform provides”.

The FMBN chief added that “This will achieve the ultimate goal of transparency, sustainability, reliability and acceptance regarding National Housing Fund transactions for the benefit of contributors nationwide”.

Kumo disclosed that a pilot test of the NHF platform with an organization which has about the largest number of employees in the country resulted in a 150 per cent increase in monthly NHF collections from the organisation, thus indicating high effectiveness of the platform.

He assured that when fully deployed nationwide, it is expected that NHF monthly collections will increase by at least 500 per cent, a development the FMBN boss said would boost the Bank’s mandate of providing finance for decent and affordable mass housing for Nigerians.

Kumo urged NHF contributors, employers and labour groups to fully embrace the NHF e-collection platform which the Bank has just launched, as it is the right step to take for provision of decent and affordable housing for NHF contributors.