Contractors Urge Govts To Pay N600bn Debt

The Foreign Ownership
Control or Influence (FOCI) has appealed to the three tiers of government to pay outstanding N600billion owed its members following the present economic downturn that is forcing most construction firms to demobilise from projects’ sites.
The body also challenged the Federal Government to address the problem of insecurity occasioned by the renewed militant activities in the Niger Delta region by the Niger Delta Avengers (NDA) in order to avoid disruption of construction works.
At the Annual General Meeting (AGM) of the FOCI recently in Abuja, President of the federation, Solomon Ogunbusola observed that even though there has been great improvement in security situation in the country, in recent times, there is need for government to find an amicable solution to the militancy in the Niger Delta.
He pointed out that the year 2015 and 2016 were very challenging for the Nigerian economy due to low international oil price, which is the main source of income to government.
Ogunbusola stressed that non-passage of the 2016 Appropriation Bill in due time has affected the industry, as valuable time that would have been used for construction work was lost.
. “We normally carry out construction works before the rain starts but we have lost a lot of valueable time”.     ~
The Director General of the FOCL Mrs. Olubunmi Adekoje, said that all tiers of government have challenges meeting their contractual agreement to the members of the association as government is having challenges funding its capital expenditure.
She stated that huge debt being owed construction companies in the country has led to the laying off of about 70per cent of the skilled workers, which companies spent huge amount of money to train over the years.
“The high exchange rate and the devaluation of the Naira are major challenges facing the industry. Some of our members focus on the private sector and the micro economy is also affecting the private sector. We have met with government at different occasions over this huge debt and they promised to look into the matter”.
Adekoje appealed to government to pay the debt to enable members of the  association re-engage the workers that were laid off and return to site.