KINGSTON, Jamaica- National Housing Trust (NHT) contributors who are eligible for 2017 contribution refunds are encouraged to submit their applications through the NHT’s website or online platform.

This, as the organisation’s mobile application (app), the more popular option for submitting applications, has been taken offline for maintenance and upgrades, says NHT Assistant General Manager for Corporate Communications and Public Affairs, Dwayne Berbick.

“Our teams are actively working on the mobile app upgrade. We are using the opportunity to make improvements to the interface, perform maintenance upgrades and, overall, improve the service delivery via this channel,” Berbick said.

He was speaking during a Jamaica Information Service (JIS) ‘Think Tank’ at the agency’s head office in Kingston on Thursday.

Berbick said the NHT is committed to delivering a superior user experience when the app is reintroduced.

The agency has received just over 104,000 contribution refunds applications. Of this number, more than 64,000 have been submitted via the NHT’s website, www.nht.gov.jm, with an additional 40,000 coming through the entity’s online platform.

The assistant general manager said these figures highlight the effectiveness of the digital channels, despite initial challenges with the NHT’s mobile application at the onset of the application period.

“These numbers are to assure our customers that the applications are still being received, they are still being processed successfully, and so they can go ahead and use those channels in the interim,” Berbick indicated.

He advised that the NHT will provide more updates on the app’s progress and new features.

“Apologies… to our customers who, perhaps, experienced some frustration initially, trying to put applications through [the mobile app]. The good thing is that the NHT has two other channels that allow customers to put in their contribution refund applications. When we do bring [the mobile app back], our intention is to bring a user experience and a service delivery that exceeds the one we had before,” Berbick said.

-JIS