The Minister of Works and Housing, Babatunde Raji Fashola, on Thursday, lamented what he described as very huge liabilities of N69.9billion to 3,504 contractors in the Housing Sector by the Federal Government.
Fashola spoke while defending the budget of the Housing Sector of his Ministry before the Senate and House of Representatives joint committees on Housing in Abuja.
The former Governor of Lagos State said that while the capital allocation to the housing sector of his Ministry in the 2021 budget proposal is N76.45billion, the ministry is presently indebted to contractors to the tune of N69.9billion.
Fashola said: “The Housing Sector has outstanding liabilities currently to the tune of N69, 909,492,390.76.”
He added that the sum of N76, 456,840,472.11 is proposed for capital allocation for the Housing Sector in the 2021 budget estimates.
“If we have N69.9billion outstanding liabilities to contractors, where can a capital budget of N76billion take us?” Fashola said.