FG Owes 3,504 Contractors N59.9b In Housing Sector – Fashola

The housing sector has outstanding liabilities currently to the tune of N69,909,492,390:76 to 3,504 contractors, the Minister of Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola, has disclosed.

The minister made this known during the presentation, defense and hearing of the ministry’s 2021 budget to the joint committee of the Senate and housing.

A break down of the liabilities shows the lion’s of N33.9b is owed 2,601 contractors in public building and housing department while 59 contracts are being owed N2.75b in the engineering services department.

Speaking on the ongoing projects in the housing sector, the minister said out of 3,926 National Housing Projects cutting across the six geopolitical zones of the federation, 1,786 have been completed.

According to him, the three billion naira variance between N4.27b in the Appropriation Act 2020 and N1.27b in the Appropriation Amendment Act 2020 affected the government’s ability to deliver on the six federal Secretariats under construction in Bayelsa, Anambra, Ekiti, Osun, Zamfara and Nasarawa States.

Fashola revealed that about N76.5b is proposed as 2021 capital allocation for the housing sector; N118.88b as overhead cost proposal for the sector and N5.3b for personnel cost.

The minister said the priority projects in the next year’s budget include completion of the construction of the remaining 2,140 units of the National Housing Programme in 34 states of the federation and the FCT besides the completion of the construction of the six ongoing federal Secretariats.

While contending that maintenance and operation of public buildings should be taken seriously with MDAs making a provision of between 2 – 10% of their capital budget annually for exercise, he affirmed that the sector had the potential to employ about 10% of the country’s working population and contribute up to 8% of the GDP.