FG Crippling The Construction Industry With Over N600bn Debt – FOCI

Construction companies in Nigeria, under the aegis of the
Federation of Construction Industry (FOCI), are greatly concerned
over the high indebtedness of the Federal Government, state and
local governments to the construction industry.
According to FOCI, which is the umbrella group for building and civil
engineering contractors, sub-contractors, and plant and equipment
suppliers, the Federal Government alone owes its members over
N600 billion.
Raising the alarm at the 59th Annual General Meeting  of the body,
in Abuja, President of FOCI, Mr. Solomon Ogunbusola, said
immediate past President Goodluck Jonathan gave the construction
industry so much work to do without money to execute them.
“We are not finding it funny; the bigger ones and smaller ones are
finding it extremely difficult. In the construction industry, we are
working below 30 percent capacity.
“If you are living in Abuja, for example, at the early hours of 4,5 and
6 a.m, you would see trucks of construction companies coming into
Abuja because the workers will have to resume but now you don’t
see the trucks including Julius Berger, Stabilini etc coming in.
“Some of us have closed; we closed the company. We are only
resuming in the office for the purpose of continuity and I want my
message to be brought out clear as I am saying, we can’t hide it. It
is unfortunate that the construction company can’t go and carry
placards and start going around saying ‘we are in recession.’ If it is
something we can do, we would have done it long ago.
“The Federal Government owes the construction industry over N600
biilion. I can mention three companies that the government alone
owes over N200 billion: Julius Berger, N70bn; MCC, over N70bn;
Setraco, over N80bn. Those are the ones I am sure of the exact
figures even S&M which is a growing company is being owed over
N800m.
“We have never had it so bad like in the last two years because the
payments were not coming forth and because we don’t know what
to do, we have to just cry aloud.”
He noted that several jobs have been lost in the industry as
companies had to cut their staff strength to about 30 percent.
He stressed that the FOCI through its 126 registered members have
contributed greatly to the construction of modern Nigeria since its
incorporation in 1954, it is therefore “distressing to observe that
many construction firms are just going to work for the sake of
continuity as many of them are on the verge of collapse due to huge
debts owned by the federal, states and local governments.
“We wish to bring to the notice of President Muhammadu Buhari;
Senate President Senator Olusola Saraki and House of
Representatives Speaker, Yusuf Dogara that the construction
companies generally are working at 30 per cent capacity following
the mass retrenchment of our workers due to the delay/non-
payment of certified jobs by various arms of government,” he said.