Contractors on site | File photo
Ghana Chamber of Construction and Industry claims the government owes contractors in excess of 10 billion Cedis.
Speaking exclusively to GHOne business, Emmanuel Cherry, the chief executive officer of the chamber said the industry is already in limbo due to pending bills that have accrued over the last 5 years. As of 2021.
He said the majority of construction projects are pre-funded by contractors using credit from financial institutions.
“The delay and failure of government to pay back contractors in due time is hurting the industry. Many of our members have accrued bad debt and subsequently gotten auctioned. We also have key projects pending, loss of jobs and many of our members have gone bankrupts.
Further, with contractors having borrowed from banks and are unable to pay back, banks have seen an increase in their non-performing loans portfolio.
While the government has tried to clear some of its pending bills, the chamber says more needs to be done.
“The government committed to pay interest payment certificates of between 0 to 1 million cedis. There is also communication that 1 million and above certificates payments will commence next week.”
As such, Mr Cherry said parliament must swift approve budget proposals to ensure that funds are released failure to which will be detrimental.