Impediments of Accessing Mortgage Facility for Housing Development by Senior Civil Servants in Rivers State: A Holistic View.

Abstract

The study examined possible challenges of accessing mortgage facility and housing development by senior civil servants in Rivers State. Both primary and secondary data were adopted using descriptive survey research design. The target population of the study comprised 2,931 respondents on salary grade levels 7-17 in the various ministries of Rivers State. The systematic sampling technique was applied while 30% of the number of staff for each ministry within the category was chosen for investigation which translated to an operational sample size of 880. A total of 855 valid copies of questionnaire were retrieved and used for the study. The research questions were analyzed with simple percentages and frequencies while the Anova test was applied on the hypothesis. The findings of the study indicates that Rivers State senior civil servants with emphasis to staff at the state secretariat complex have constrained access to loan due to bureaucratic bottlenecks arising from poor Service conditions of the newly approved national minimum wage salary structure which had been aborted by the Rivers State government. The study concludes above all that government should set a framework within which workers can access mortgage credit at an affordable rate to curtail excessive demand of housing. It therefore recommends that government and mortgage institutions should remove collaterals and high interest rate charges which hinder housing development to enhance staff productivity.