Lagos govt threatens to revoke delayed housing contracts

Lagos State Government has warned contractors handling ongoing state housing projects to speed up construction work or risk losing their contracts.

Commissioner for Housing, Moruf Akinderu-Fatai, issued the warning during an inspection tour of the housing projects at Abraham Adesanya Extension, a Joint Venture development, and the Sangotedo Housing Scheme Phase 2.

Akinderu-Fatai stated that the state government remains committed to delivering at least 2,000 housing units before the end of the year and would not tolerate unnecessary delays by contractors.

The inspection exercise was conducted alongside the Permanent Secretary of the ministry, Hafis Toriola, as well as directors, engineers and technical teams from the ministry.

Speaking during the tour, the commissioner expressed displeasure over the slow pace of work observed at some of the project sites.

“We are not happy about the scope of work here and we also noticed some technical issues that we are going to resolve with the contractors.

“If the government has given them enough money to finish up these projects and they are slow, we will quickly take them off the site,” he said.

The projects under inspection form part of a broader housing development plan expected to deliver about 2,000 homes across different schemes in the state.

Among the developments is the 526-unit Sangotedo Housing Scheme, which is being executed under a Public-Private Partnership, PPP, arrangement.

Despite acknowledging the scale of the infrastructure projects, Akinderu-Fatai stressed that the government was becoming increasingly concerned about delays in delivery timelines.

According to him, some of the projects were initially expected to have been completed about two years ago.

The commissioner attributed part of the delay to prevailing economic challenges, especially the rising cost of building materials, which he said forced developers to suspend work temporarily and renegotiate project terms with the ministry.

However, he noted that the government was no longer willing to entertain further excuses from contractors.

“We have gone past that, the level we are at now is delivery,” he stated.

Akinderu-Fatai added that the ministry would hold urgent meetings with contractors handling the projects in a bid to address outstanding challenges and accelerate delivery timelines.