The Federal Government on Thursday moved to ease rising tensions among road contractors, assuring that all outstanding payments for federal road projects would be cleared before December 20, 2025, following days of protests over stalled project financing and mounting debts.
Minister of Works, David Umahi, gave the assurance during the reopening of the repaired Keffi Flyover in Nasarawa State. He said President Bola Tinubu had acknowledged the backlog of debts and approved the constitution of a special committee to verify and settle all outstanding claims.
In recent days, contractors under the All Indigenous Contractors Association of Nigeria had staged protests at the Federal Ministry of Finance, demanding payment for completed and ongoing projects.
The association claimed the government owed contractors about N4 trillion, with N760 billion specifically pending release, funds that Minister of Finance, Wale Edun, had earlier pledged to pay in September.
During the protest, contractors placed a symbolic coffin at the ministry entrance, representing the hardships and deaths some members had endured due to delayed payments.
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Responding to these concerns, Umahi called for an end to protests, assuring that the President had directed all verified debts be paid within days.
He said: “Let me assure our contractors that Mr President yesterday (Wednesday), in fact, recognised that you have been owed and is setting up a committee to review all the debts. Please, there should be no more protests. You will be paid, Mr President has assured that you’ll be paid like the intervention we made on Maraba-Keffi. I know that two of the contractors have not been paid. But the President is aware, and efforts have been made, and before the 20th of December, you’ll be paid.”
Umahi also confirmed that contractors on the Maraba–Keffi axis, including China Harbour Engineering Company, would be included in the upcoming disbursement.
In an unprecedented step to ensure transparency, the Minister revealed that the Ministry of Works had invited the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) and the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to audit all ongoing and completed federal road projects across the 36 states and the FCT.
He explained: “I wrote to ICPC and submitted all the projects of Mr President and the Ministry of Works from the day I assumed office. We asked them to go through all the states and verify those projects. This is the first of its kind. We have also sent the same list to EFCC. We are very transparent in what we are doing under President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.”
The move is expected to restore public confidence, ensure accountability, and guarantee that payments accurately reflect work completed.
