Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria (FMBN) has launched an electronic platform for collection of National Housing Fund (NHF) deductions from employers of labour. Simply called the NHF e-collection platform, the device 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.

Mr. Gimba Ya’u Kumo, managing director/CEO, FMBN, disclosed in Abuja 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 channelled into a dedicated NHF collection account.

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.