FG owes Roads, Housing Contractors N956 billion – Fashola

Minister of Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola Wednesday revealed that the Federal government of Nigeria is indebted to Contractors in Roads and Housing industry to the tune of N956 billion.

The Minister gave this revelation at the 2023 budget defence of the Ministry of Works and Housing, while he lamented that budget cuts for 2023 would affect the Ministry negatively in 2023.

Speaking on how the outstanding liabilities came about, Fashola explained that the sum of N191.5 billion was debt owed Contractors handling the National Housing Scheme, while the sum of N765 billion was owed Contractors handling road projects across the country from the total contract value of N10.4 trillion.

Fashola revealed that the National Housing Scheme which started in 2016 has been successfully executed in 35 out of 36 States of the country with 1,250 contractors involved.

He gave a breakdown that 6,000 Housing units has created 46 construction sites across the country, 29,030 direct employment and 57, 874 indirect employment.

He said: “The National Housing Project is very much on course, but the problem of paucity of fund through drastic budget slash and outstanding liabilities of N191.75 billion, need to be urgently looked into.

“In 2022 fiscal year, while the total capital votes for both Works and Housing Components of the Ministry was N441.18 billion, the proposal made for 2023 fiscal year is N146 billion.

He said the Ministry has N45 billion earmarked for capital project out of N146 billion for 2023, adding inadequate funding was the major challenge confronting development of the nation’s highways.

Continuing on debt owed Contractors, the Minister said, government was owing highway contractors to the tune of about N10.4 trillion while a total of about N765 billion are unpaid certificates for executed works.

He added that shortage of younger Engineers and technical officers on the Ministry which was occasioned by embargo on recruitment by the administration was affecting effective project supervision.

Reacting Committee Chairmen and members commended the Minister for good number of roads and Housing projects executed across the country in the face of scarce resources and other challenges.

The Chairman of the Senate Committee on Housing, Senator Sam Egwu told the Minister to use the proposed N45 billion capital votes in the 2023 budget to complete the remaining 3,000 units of the 6,000 units National Housing Project.

While the Committee Chairman and former Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Senator Adamu Aliero urged the Minister to complete the second Niger bridge.