President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has constituted a high-level Ministerial Committee to resolve the long-standing issue of unpaid payments for projects executed for more than 2,000 federal contractors.
The Committee comprises the Minister of Finance, Minister of Budget and Economic Planning, Director-General of the Budget Office; Minister of Works, Minister of Education, Minister of Housing and Urban Development, and the Chairman of the Federal Inland Revenue Service.
Special Adviser to the President on Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga, disclosed this on Wednesday while briefing State House Correspondents, following what he described as “a very productive discussion” with Ministers after receiving an updated briefing on the scale and implications of the outstanding payments.
To tackle the challenge, Mr Onanuga said “the President has approved a coordinated mechanism to verify claims, reconcile records, and propose sustainable financing options.”
According to him, the ministers and senior officials are expected to “sit together, harmonise data, and develop a comprehensive solution that will determine how and when the outstanding payments will be settled.”
He said; “the situation has created bottlenecks and undermined service delivery in critical sectors where contractors had executed government-approved projects.”
“The committee has the President’s full backing to resolve this matter decisively,” Onanuga assured.
He stressed that President Tinubu remained committed to restoring transparency and order to the contractor-payment process, ensuring that genuine contractors are paid promptly while blocking abuses and irregularities.
Contractors had protested delays of project funds, saying it has led to loan defaults, loss of property, deteriorating health conditions, and, in some cases, deaths among affected members.
The Minister of Finance, Wale Edun, had outlined a structured pathway for sorting the debts, following directives from President Tinubu to commence payments.
PIAK