August 28, 2025
General Housing

Federal Government Links Workers’ Inability to Access Housing Loans to Excessive Salary Deductions

The Federal Government has attributed civil servants’ limited ability to secure housing loans to the burden of multiple loan deductions prevailing across workers’ salaries. It cautions that such recurring payroll deductions significantly reduce take‑home pay and, in turn, diminish eligibility for home‑financing schemes.

According to senior officials at the Federal Ministry of Finance, Nigerian workers frequently contend with overlapping obligations, ranging from housing and car loans to car maintenance and consumer credit schemes, all of which are automatically deducted before salaries are paid. Such a structure, the FG insists, effectively constricts the monthly disposable income required for housing‑loan underwriting.

As a result, banks and mortgage institutions are increasingly reluctant to approve home loans for those whose salary is already encumbered by several mandatory deductions. “With net pay reduced by successive loan tickets, many workers fall outside the acceptable debt‑to‑income thresholds applied by lending institutions,” confirms a government spokesperson. Indeed, in many households, what looks like “income” on paper hardly translates into borrowing power in practice.

The Finance Ministry is reportedly exploring policy adjustments to ease this pressure, such as consolidating multiple deductions under a single approved scheme, reducing employers’ payroll deduction lines, or introducing flexible loan packaging that allows for gradual repayment. These moves, it is hoped, will restore workers’ borrowing capacity and stimulate the housing‑finance sector.

Observers in the housing‑fund and mortgage industries say the issue is a growing concern. “You can’t service a housing loan if your salary has already been sliced into pieces,” laments one housing‑fund manager, who prefers to remain anonymous. “It’s not just about interest rates or collateral, t’s about net income at hand.”

In essence, the Federal Government paints a clear picture: the multiplicity of deductions from workers’ pay is seriously undermining their access to loans, especially home mortgages, and urgently demands a strategic response to restore affordability and lending viability.

That rendition weaves in the facts you gave, FG blames multiple deductions, the effect on take‑home pay, reduced eligibility, and potential policy responses, wrapped in the tone of a respected Nigerian media outlet. Let me know if you’d like additional data added, quotes, numbers, or to tweak the narrative tone!