The All Indigenous Contractors Association of Nigeria (AICAN) has urged the Federal Government to address outstanding payments for completed projects awarded to local contractors.
The association made the call on Saturday in Abuja at the burial of one of its members, Alhaji Mohammed Inusa, who it said died after battling an illness for about three months.
Mr Jackson Nwosu, National President of AICAN, said the deceased had completed projects worth billions of naira but was still owed more than N1 billion.
Nwosu alleged that the outstanding payment had made it difficult for the contractor to access funds needed for medical treatment.
He said the deceased required surgery which, according to him, could have been funded if part of the money owed him had been paid.
‘We are here to bury one of our members that died. He had been suffering from this illness for about three months,’ Nwosu said.
He said the association had been concerned about the financial difficulties faced by local contractors who were unable to recover funds invested in government projects.
Nwosu appealed to the Federal Government to prioritise payment of verified debts owed to indigenous contractors to prevent further hardship in the sector.
He also questioned why, according to him, foreign contractors were sometimes paid upfront while local contractors struggled to recover money invested in completed projects.
Similarly, Mr Rotimi Raheem, National Publicity Secretary of AICAN, said the association had lost several members in different parts of the country.
Raheem said the deceased had outstanding payments running into billions of naira but was unable to access sufficient funds for his treatment.
He said the association contributed some money toward the contractor’s medical expenses but could not raise enough because many members were also experiencing financial difficulties.
‘Two weeks ago, with the little we had, we gave it to him,’ Raheem said.
He said the association was concerned about the impact of delayed payments on contractors and called for urgent intervention by the Federal Government.
According to him, some contractors had not been paid for projects completed over the past two years because such projects allegedly lacked cash backing.
He said the situation was not peculiar to Abuja but affected indigenous contractors across the country.
Raheem urged the government to ensure that verified obligations to local contractors were settled, saying this would enable them to recover investments and continue contributing to national infrastructure development.
He said the association remained committed to engaging relevant authorities on the issue of outstanding payments to indigenous contractors.
Nuhu Inusa, son of the deceased contractor, said his father’s health began to deteriorate about three months before his death.
He attributed the worsening condition partly to the delay in payment for work his father had executed as a contractor.
According to him, the family had made efforts to draw the attention of relevant authorities to the situation and sought assistance from their representative, but without success.
‘Had the money been paid on time, I believe, though I am not God, that he might still have been alive by now,’ he said.
Inusa said his father eventually died from a tumour in his spine.