All Indigenous Contractors Association of Nigeria (AICAN) yesterday staged a fresh protest at the Federal Ministry of Finance headquarters in Abuja, refuting widespread reports that the Federal Government had disbursed N700 billion to settle outstanding liabilities owed to local contractors.
The protest came just as the Federal Ministry of Finance reportedly approved payments to more than 1,240 contractors. The payments cover contractors across various Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs).
However, the protesting contractors, who blocked the entrance to the ministry, clarified that the disputed sum is part of an overarching N1 trillion debt owed by the Federal Government for capital projects executed nationwide during the 2024 fiscal year.
Speaking during the demonstration, the National President of AICAN, Jackson Nwosu, revealed that despite previous bureaucratic assurances, approximately 85 per cent of indigenous contractors remain unpaid.
Nwosu explained that during a previous reconciliation meeting with officials from the finance ministry and the Office of the Accountant General of the Federation (OAGF), an agreement was reached to immediately release a tranche of N40 billion to beneficiaries by last Friday, a timeline the government failed to meet.
The National Secretary of the association, Babatunde Seun, disputed the fiscal data in the public domain, stating that members had yet to receive any bank alerts corresponding to the purported N700 billion payment.
Seun rejected the proposal of partial payments, blaming the administrative delays on the slow issuance of cash warrants to various Ministries, Departments, and Agencies (MDAs).
He said, “We came out this morning because of the news that N700 billion had been approved.
“We have submitted claims running into billions and many contractors have still not been paid. That is why we are here.”
A veteran member of the association, Ndubueze Kingsley, decried the psychological and financial toll of the impasse, lamenting that many local firms had suffered asset foreclosures due to accumulated bank interest.
Responding to the aggrieved protesters on behalf of the government, the Permanent Secretary (Special Duties) at the Ministry of Finance, Mohammed Sanusi, urged patience, explaining that the treasury was balancing multiple competing fiscal liabilities.
He said the N700 billion mentioned in public reports had indeed been approved by the presidency, but explained that administrative cash backing protocols take time to process.
On the payment approval for 1,240 local contractors, the ministry said that contractors prioritised for payment in the most recent batch were those with verified claims in the region of N100 million or less.
In this article