President Bola Tinubu on Wednesday expressed “grave displeasure” regarding the significant backlog of unpaid federal contractors and subsequently established a high-level committee to resolve the financial bottlenecks and facilitate repayments.
Briefing State House correspondents after the Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting in Abuja, Bayo Onanuga, the Special Adviser on Information and Strategy, conveyed the President’s reaction after he learned that approximately “2,000 contractors are owed.”
Onanuga stated that the President was “upset” and wants immediate action. He offered a quoted statement on the President’s demand:“He made it very, very clear he is not happy and wants a one-stop solution,” Onanuga told journalists.
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Onanuga elaborated on the President’s frustration:“An important highlight in the course of the FEC meeting is that the President expressed very, very grave displeasure about the fact that contractors are being owed money. The DG of the Bureau of Public Procurement actually told the President that about 2,000 contractors are being owed money and this made the President very, very upset. So the ministers are going to look into the problem to really find a solution, to find the money to be used in paying the contractors,” he further explained.
The high-level committee formed by the President includes several cabinet members:
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Ministers of Finance (Wale Edun)
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Budget and Economic Planning (Atiku Bagudu)
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Works (Dave Umahi)
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Education (Olatunji Alausa)
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Housing (Ahmed Dangiwa)
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Marine & Blue Economy (Gboyega Oyetola)
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Director-General of the Budget Office of the Federation (Tanimu Kurfi)
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Chairman of the Federal Inland Revenue Service (Dr Zacch Adedeji)
Onanuga explained the committee’s mandate:“All of them are supposed to sit down, develop a plan as a committee, meet as a committee, and then go to the president to tell him the solution they have found in allocating funds to pay contractors,” he stated.
He added that the Director-General of the Bureau of Public Procurement informed the Council of the magnitude of these “legacy debts,” prompting the President’s directive to “find the money and fix the problem of paying contractors.”
Onanuga indicated the President is open to various solutions, even suggesting:“We need to look at problems. What has been causing this problem? Why have we had the FIRS saying we are getting more money and so on, yet we are owing contractors? What could be the cause of this thing? That’s why he set up a multi-ministerial committee to look at the problem. He even said that, as a sovereign country, we can go and borrow to pay those contractors. But I think by the time those on the committee meet him today, I think we will find a solution,” he explained.
This presidential action comes after weeks of pressure from contractors protesting payment delays for jobs completed since the previous year. For example, in early September, the All Indigenous Contractors Association of Nigeria protested at the Finance Ministry and the National Assembly, claiming more than N4tn was outstanding for certified 2024 capital projects.
This payment backlog adds to ongoing budget issues, as Nigeria has been running “overlapping budgets, extending 2024 capital components deep into 2025,” requiring the approval of “an extra N1.15tn in domestic borrowing” in November to address a widened 2025 deficit.
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