Over 5,000 local contractors for Federal Government projects are on nationwide protests and hunger strikes to press for the payment of debts owed them for contracts executed.
The Publicity Secretary of the Local Contractors of Nigeria, Prince Dandy Rowland in a statement said the various ministries, departments, and agencies of the federal government are being owed between three to 12 years hence their protest.
According to the public debt stock data report in first quarter 2020, Nigeria had N9.99 trillion external debt and N18.64tn domestic debt. It is not immediately clear how much of the debt is owed contractors directly.
“The Presidency inaugurated the Presidential Initiative on Continuous Audit (PICA) in the Federal Ministry of Finance to verify the contracts we executed and PICA has since verified these and recommended for settlement. Yet the finance minister is still talking of verification every now and then,” the statement stated.
The statement indicated that the minister of finance had previously informed that N18 billion has been released to pay some of the debts yet but they haven’t not received that, two months after.
They called on the Presidency to intervene on the payments.
The ministry said the process was ongoing.
