Construction companies in Nigeria have called on President Muhammadu Buhari to prevail on the federal, state and local governments to, as a matter of urgency, settle the over N600 billion outstanding debts owed them and about 100,000 workers.
The President, Federation of Construction Industry (FOCI), Solomon Ogunbusola, who addressed a press conference in Abuja on Wednesday, said none of their members had received any payment for jobs done since August 2014.
Worried by the non-payment of over N300bn by the federal government alone, Ogunbusola said the FOCI had written to President Buhari to come to their aid, as it was recently done for the civil servants.
The builder said the situation had caused employers in the industry to lay off 80 per cent of their workforce, with many of their dependents cut off, leading to increase in crime rate.
He added that banks where construction companies had borrowed funds are not helping matters due to the attendant high interest rates.
The FOCI President called on government to stop the frivolous award of political contracts, especially FEC-awarded contracts, to political jobbers whom, he said, if found to be non-performing, should be summarily terminated to avoid economic wastages.
He advised government to award only contracts it knows it can conveniently service.
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