As part of efforts towards meeting the welfare needs of its personnel, the Nigerian Air Force (NAF) has inaugurated the NAF Post-Service Mortgage Scheme for young recruits
and newly commissioned officers, in collaboration with the Federal Housing Authority Mortgage Bank Limited (FHAMB).
The scheme, which also accommodates airmen/airwomen and officers with between 10 and 20 years to spend in the Service, is aimed at assisting personnel to have houses after retirement.
The newly enlisted airmen/airwomen and commissioned officers as well as those with up to 10 to 20 years in Service are expected to open accounts with FHAMB and make monthly deposits. With this scheme, the difficulties usually encountered by NAF personnel in raising funds from commercial banks, coupled with the relatively high interest rates, would be eliminated.
One advantage of the scheme is that respective mortgage contributors are at liberty to choose where they want their houses located after which the NAF Housing and Construction Company Ltd would access their contributions and build the houses. The construction of the houses would be financed by the FHAMB while subscribers are expected to pay for the mortgage for the period of their service or within 10 to 20 years as the case might be. In the event that a contributor’s funds are insufficient to build the house of his/her choice, the NAF Housing and Construction Company Ltd would then access their contributions with the Federal Housing Loan Scheme to make up for the shortage.
This initiative will no doubt reduce the pressure and stress hitherto experienced by NAF personnel in meeting the timelines for payments on post-service housing schemes. To inaugurate the scheme, the Managing Director of NAF Housing and Construction Limited, Air Vice Marshal Shehu Adamu has handed over registration forms to the newly enlisted airmen/airwomen who recently completed the Basic Military Training Course at the Military Training Centre, NAF Base, Kaduna. So far, about 1,224 recruits have registered for the scheme.
It would be recalled that in 2016, the Chief of the Air Staff (CAS), Air Marshal Sadique Abubakar, initiated a post-service housing project, known as the NAF Eagle Estate Project, for non-commissioned officers (NCOs), to address the gap in previous similar schemes, which excluded personnel in the SNCOs’ cadre. Located at Bwari Area Council of Abuja, the Estate is planned to accommodate 905 units of 3-bedroom terrace duplex, 3-bedroom semi-detached bungalow and 3-bedroom detached bungalows. The plan is to extend the project to other cities like Enugu, Kaduna and Lagos.