The Federal Ministry of Finance has approved immediate funding to over 1,240 local contractors, unlocking vital liquidity for small and medium enterprises nationwide.
In a major move to inject liquidity directly into the domestic economy, the Federal Ministry of Finance has approved the immediate payment of verified outstanding liabilities to more than 1,240 local contractors across the country.
The initiative underscores the Federal Government’s renewed commitment to systematically clearing its sovereign debt portfolio and honoring valid financial obligations.
The development was officially announced on Monday in Abuja via a statement issued by the Ministry’s Head of Information, Efe Ovuakporie.
According to Ovuakporie, the extensive disbursement approval was granted by the Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Mr. Taiwo Oyedele. The authorization followed a rigorous, multi-tiered verification and reconciliation audit meticulously engineered by the ministry to ensure that only legitimate, duly validated claims qualified for immediate treasury release.
The payment batch covers certified indigenous contractors spread across various Federal Ministries, Departments, and Agencies (MDAs). Crucially, this intervention targets long-standing payment backlogs, providing a life-support corridor to indigenous businesses and small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) that form the backbone of Nigeria’s employment landscape.
“Contractors prioritized for payment in the most recent batch were those with verified claims in the region of N100 million or less,” Ovuakporie disclosed.
By intentionally prioritizing a vast network of smaller local contractors over a concentrated handful of large-scale conglomerates, the Federal Government is strategically broadening the multiplier effect of public spending. This decentralized fiscal deployment aims to stimulate grass-roots commercial velocity across multiple sectors and geopolitical zones simultaneously.
The financial relief is expected to translate into immediate real-sector outcomes, equipping hundreds of paralyzed businesses with the capital required to re-mobilize to stalled project sites, pay accumulated staff wages, settle downstream supplier debts, and comfortably meet external financial commitments.
The Finance Ministry revealed that over the past few months, the Federal Government has aggressively processed payments exceeding N700 billion across diverse categories of audited local obligations.
Within May 2026 alone, the treasury accelerated its operations to process approximately N436.6 billion in vendor transactions, demonstrating a highly coordinated push to combat economic contraction and restore private-sector confidence.
Ministry officials emphasize that this proactive settlement framework serves as more than an ordinary treasury transaction. It injects the institutional predictability required by the private sector to preserve jobs, sustain long-term business operations, complete vital public works, and fuel the ongoing national economic recovery.
Moving forward, the ministry pledged to sustain strict fiscal discipline while institutionalizing a transparent, timely payment framework designed to completely eliminate outstanding structural liabilities over time.
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