President Bola Tinubu has constituted a high-level ministerial committee to resolve the long-standing backlog of payments owed to more than 2,000 federal contractors.

Special Adviser to the President on Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga, yesterday said the fresh move comes amid mounting pressure from contractors who claim the Federal Government owes them over N4 trillion for completed projects, a situation that has triggered multiple protests at the Ministry of Finance and the National Assembly in recent months.

Many of the affected contractors said the prolonged non-payment has pushed them into severe financial distress, leading to loan defaults, loss of property, deteriorating health, and, in some cases, deaths.

Although the Minister of Finance, Wale Edun, had earlier announced a structured pathway for settling the debts on the President’s directive, the contractors insist that less than one per cent of verified claims have been paid.

Speaking after the Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, Onanuga said that Tinubu received a fresh briefing on the scale and implications of the outstanding obligations and subsequently directed a coordinated solution.

He described the President’s engagement with ministers as “a very productive discussion,” noting that the accumulation of debts had created bottlenecks and slowed service delivery across critical sectors.

To tackle the issue comprehensively, he said the President has approved a multi-ministerial mechanism to verify claims, reconcile records, and recommend sustainable financing options for clearing the backlog.

The committee comprises the ministers of Finance, Budget and Economic Planning, Works, Education, Housing and Urban Development, the Director-General of the Budget Office, and the Nigeria Revenue Service.

“These ministers and senior officials are expected to sit together, harmonise data, and develop a comprehensive solution that will determine how and when the outstanding payments will be settled,” Onanuga said.

He added that the President is determined to restore order, transparency and credibility to the contractor-payment system, ensuring that only genuine claims are honoured while irregularities are eliminated.

Fielding questions, Onanuga said the President’s directive reflects a decisive shift from merely diagnosing the causes of the recurring problem to finally resolving it.

“We have gone beyond finding reasons or blaming anyone. The question now is: what is responsible for this persistent problem, and how do we solve it?” he said.

Onanuga stressed that as a sovereign country, Nigeria must honour its legitimate obligations, but insisted that payments must follow proper verification and due process.