President Bola Tinubu on Wednesday voiced “grave displeasure” over the backlog of unpaid federal contractors and announced the formation of a high-level committee to address the delays and ensure repayment.

Briefing State House reporters after the Federal Executive Council meeting in Abuja, Special Adviser on Information and Strategy Bayo Onanuga said the President was “upset” upon learning that nearly 2,000 contractors are awaiting payment.

“He made it very, very clear he is not happy and wants a one-stop solution,” Onanuga told journalists. “An important highlight in the course of the FEC meeting is that the President expressed very, very grave displeasure about the fact that contractors are being owed money.

“The DG of the Bureau of Public Procurement actually told the President that about 2000 contractors are being owed money, and this made the President very, very upset. So the ministers are going to look into the problem to really find a solution, to find the money to be used in paying the contractors,” he further stated.

He added that the committee will include the Ministers of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Wale Edun; Budget and Economic Planning, Atiku Bagudu; Works, Dave Umahi; Education, Olatunji Alausa; Housing, Ahmed Dangiwa; and Marine & Blue Economy, Gboyega Oyetola, as well as the Director-General of the Budget Office of the Federation, Tanimu Kurfi, and the Chairman of the Federal Inland Revenue Service, Dr. Zacch Adedeji.

“All of them are supposed to sit down, develop a plan as a committee, meet as a committee, and then go to the president to tell him the solution they have found in allocating funds to pay contractors,” he added.

Onanuga also noted that the Director-General of the Bureau of Public Procurement updated the Council on the scale of the outstanding legacy debts, which led to the President’s directive.

“The mandate is to find the money and fix the problem of paying contractors. We need to look at problems. What has been causing this problem? Why have we had the FIRS saying we are getting more money and so on, yet we are owing contractors? What could be the cause of this thing?

“That’s why he set up a multi-ministerial committee to look at the problem. He even said that, as a sovereign country, we can go and borrow to pay those contractors. But I think by the time those on the committee meet him today, I think we will find a solution,” he noted.

Onanuga’s remarks come after weeks of pressure from contractors who have raised concerns over delayed payments for work completed since last year.

In early September, the All Indigenous Contractors Association of Nigeria staged a protest at the Finance Ministry in Abuja, alleging that over N4 trillion was owed for certified 2024 capital projects—a figure they also cited during a demonstration at the National Assembly.

The Works Ministry had previously acknowledged the backlog, launching a verification exercise in January 2024 to address approximately N1.5 trillion owed on federal highway contracts.