By Ismail Auwal
The Minister of Works and Housing,Babatunde Fashola, has revealed that the Federal Government owes contractors N956 billion for completed road and housing projects across the country.
Fashola during the 2023 budget defense session with the Senate Committees on Works and Housing said that the government owed N191.75 billion to contractors handling the National Housing Scheme and N765 billion to those handling road projects out of the N956 billion in debts.
He added that the National Housing Project, which started in 2016, had been executed in 35 states with 1,250 contractors.
“The National Housing Project is very much on course, but the problems of the paucity of funds through drastic budget slash and outstanding liabilities of N191.75bn 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 N441.18bn; the proposal made for 2023 fiscal year is N146 billion,” he said.
According to him out of the proposed N146bn as capital expenditure for the entire ministry in 2023 fiscal year, only N45bn is earmarked for the housing sector.
“The main challenge to highway development in the country remains inadequate funding.
“As of date, the government is committed to highway contractors to the tune of about N10.4trn; while a total of about N765bn are unpaid certificates for executed works,” he said.
