President Bola Tinubu has voiced strong displeasure over the large backlog of unpaid debts owed to federal contractors and has constituted a ministerial committee to propose rapid solutions to the problem.
The decision was announced by Presidential Spokesperson Bayo Onanuga following Wednesday’s Federal Executive Council meeting at the State House in Abuja. He said the President became visibly upset after receiving a briefing from the Director-General of the Bureau of Public Procurement, who disclosed that around 2,000 contractors were yet to be paid for completed work.
According to Onanuga, Tinubu immediately directed a group of key ministers and senior officials to work together to determine how the debts could be settled without delay. The committee comprises the Minister of Finance, Minister of Economic Planning, Director-General of the Budget Office, Minister of Works, Minister of Education, Minister of Housing, Minister of Marine and Blue Economy, and the Chairman of the Federal Inland Revenue Service.
“All of them are supposed to meet, discuss as a committee, and then return to the President with the solutions they have found,” Onanuga explained.
He added that the President made clear his dissatisfaction and the urgency required: “The President said he is not happy at all. He wants a quick solution.”
