From Joseph Amedu, Lokoja
The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and Trade Union Congress (TUC), Kogi Chapters, have urged Gov. Yahaya Bello led administration to subsidise housing loan for workers in the state.
The state’s NLC and TUC Chairmen, Onuh Edoka and Tijani Ahmed, made the call in separate interviews with Our Correspondent in Lokoja, Tuesday.
Our Correspondent reports that the Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria (FMBN) in collaboration with NLC/TUC/NECA had on Jan. 26, inaugurated 100 housing units estate for civil servants in the state.
“If you look round and going by the history of Kogi since its creation, successive administrations have provided housing estate for state workers.
“But for seven years running now, this administration has not been able to provide housing for state’s workers.
“So, the organised labour unions want the state government to cash in on this opportunity to acquire the FMBN housing scheme and give it to workers.
“The government should acquire the housing estate and allocate it to the interested civil servants in the state,” he said.
According to him, the FMBN is meant to provide housing for Nigerian workers, and it is the workers’ contribution that had made the bank to be what it is today.
“So, we don’t expect anything less than 100 per cent of the occupants of this FMBN/NKC/TUC/NECA housing estate to be workers; that is our position,” he said.
The unions also advised that if the state government could not build housing estate for workers as proposed, it should subsidise the price of the FMBN Housing estate for the workers.