The Minister of Power, Works and Housing, Mr. Babatunde Fashola, said that the Federal Government has disbursed about N47.17bn to 62 contractors out of the debt owed them.

Fashola, who stated this in Lagos on Friday at a road construction summit organised by Lafarge Africa Plc in collaboration with BusinessDay, said the debt was inherited from the past administration in 2015.

The Federal Government had said in July that it had approved N2.7tn for the payment of outstanding debts owed contractors, pensioners and oil marketers for over 20 years, adding that the beneficiaries would be settled through the issuance of liquid promissory notes of 10-year tenure phased over a three-year period to minimise the impact on liquidity.

According to the minister, the payment has made many construction companies, which had hitherto stopped work on projects or closed shops due to paucity of funds, to begin to return to sites.