President of Federation of Construction Industry (FOCI), Nasiru Dantata, on Wednesday, expressed satisfaction over the utilisation of the N100 billion Sukuk fund released for the construction of critical roads across the country.
Dantata, who disclosed this during the FOCI’s annual general meeting in Abuja, also applauded President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration over the payment of outstanding debt owed local contractors by previous administrations.
He assured that despite the late passage of the N9.120 trillion Appropriation Act for 2018 fiscal year, the operations of FOCI members in relations to the capital expenditure will not be hindered.
“As you notice, the budget has just been passed some works will naturally slow down because of the weather but in terms of our operations, I think there is no company that is scaling down work based on the weather” .
“Most of our clients are behind those, the money is there. For example, the SUKUK fund of N100 billion, this fund has gone to our member companies, we are able to exhaust it and I’m sure the release of the 2018 capital expenditure will be good enough for the Ministry as it was in 2017.
“Our members are expected to continue to perform as much as possible even in the raining season. Look at terrain as in South-South, Bayelsa and so on, you cannot just take the raining season as a vacation period so as diverse as Nigeria is, we have the equipment and the know-how to work even during raining season,” he assured.
While giving update on the payment of debts owed local contractors by Federal Government, Dantata said: “Actually for now, the situation is different. I must say that most of our members have gotten substantial amount of the outstanding debts paid and also many of our members are being patronized by the current administration on new jobs“.
“Some of these jobs are quite bold such as the 375km Abuja-Kano and the administration is promising to fund it through many channels. So the industry is being hopeful that this trend will continue.”
According to Dantata, “from over N300 billion we presented to this administration when they came in, I believe over half at least must have been paid by now”.
“As FOCI we have not collated this information but what I can say is that our members are busy working on several roads across the nation.”
On the request for the refund of Withholding Tax (WHT) to FOCI members, Dantata expressed satisfaction over the progress made so far during an advocacy visit to Babatunde Fowler, chairman, Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS).
“If our members having to collect N10 billion for example, and if the budget is only N10 billion, you can imagine it’s not only construction industry that is looking for refund. So what we are proposing for government is, since we are working in the area of development, most of the money is coming from government – state and federal; the best is to reduce the withholding tax on our activities in the construction sector.
“This was done briefly some years ago and it was reversed but we are discussing with the chairman of FIRS and he has assured us that what happened was there was a little of abuse and other sectors are trying to cash-in into it. So if we can find a way to say only federal and state road projects will benefit instead of just to say construction companies.”
He explained that the “amount was in billions but it depends on the work done by each company, which will be determined by the annual audit of the companies.
“We at FOCI don’t represent all contractors in Nigeria but I can assure you that those under the umbrella of FOCI are competent contractors that have competent hands and equipment and empowered to execute projects.”
According to Dantata, during the year under review, the Council also embarked on advocacy visits to some of the government agencies including Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria (FMBN) where the delegation requested for members participation in the mass housing scheme of Federal Government.
Similarly, the delegation interfaced with Nigeria Social Insurance Trust Fund (NSITF) on the implementation of the Employees’ Compensation Act (ECA) 2010 and the need for adequate and prompt refund to member companies.
According to Dantata, some of the challenges being faced by member companies include: increased challenge of doing business in Nigeria, high debt profile, need to revert withholding tax to 2.5%, as well as timely refund and issuance of receipts.
The financial statement of FOCI opened with total sum of N102.181 million; total inflow of N89 million received during the year while N60.705 million outflow leaving a balance of N130.9 million.
Breakdown of the cash outflow showed that the sum of N5.697 million was for Corporate taxes (FIRS and LIRS); N1.972 million for Land Use charges in Lagos and Abuja; N5 million for FOCI Scholarship award; N2.288 million for rent in lieu of housing allowance; N1.050 million for professional services; N2.949 million for AGM and other control meetings; N5.354 million for office equipments; N28.257 million for subvention and N2.671 million for debt recovery services.
