FG To Commence Payment Of Debt Owed Local Contractors – Deputy Speaker

Contractor to the Federal Government across Ministries, Departments and Agencies numbering more than 5,000 have been assured of the commencement of contracts fees owed them next week.

The contractors under the umbrella of All Indigenous Contractors Association of Nigeria have been at logger heads with government over non- payment of capital projects execute under the 2024 national budget.

They have laid siege for two days at the entrance to the Federal Ministry of Finance headquarters in Abuja to drive home their demands.

However, yesterday at a high powered parley at the instance of the Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives, Rt. Hon. Benjamin Kalu reprieve came as the he assured them that payments which will be in batches will commence next week.

At the meeting were the Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Mr. Wale Edun and the Accountant General of the Federation, Mr. Shamsudeen Ogunjimi, as well as the Permanent Secretary, Special Duties.

According to the General Secretary of the contractors Association, Mr. Babatunde Seun who spoke exclusively to the Daily Times on telephone after the meeting, the Deputy Speaker gave the assurance that government has ordered the Office of the Accountant General to commence payment to contractors that have satisfied payment conditions for the months of February, March, April and May, this year.

According to him, the next batch starting from June will also be attended to until government was able to offset contractors that are due for payment. He added that Kalu told them that any contractor that truly completed contract awarded to him / her will be paid.

He said the Accountant General, Ogunjinmi also assured that there is adequate funding to attend to the payments.

The Accountant General promised to raise a memo to the various MDA authorizing them to issues batch number to contractors immediately he get to his office on Monday 8th September 2025 to enable them fast track payment process to the contractor.

Kalu, he said, however, charged contractors to ensure prompt completion of projects, to avoid shoddy jobs or cutting corners at the expense of quality delivery of projects.

He said that Kalu further assured the contractors of prompt response to their concerns as the Green Chamber will be more interested in their plight while urging them not to hesitate in notifying the National Assembly of any issues bothering them.

On behalf of the Association, Babatunde expressed satisfaction with the meeting while commending the Deputy Speaker for his leadership intervention.

“We are happy because all we wanted to hear from the government is assurance of payment and we are happy to hear that,” he said.

Earlier in the day before the meeting, the Association had bemoaned the plights of members most of whom are owing banks on monies borrowed to execute projects, while many are passing through economic and health challenges.