Construction Firms Want Return to 2.5% Withholding Tax

• Construction Firms Want Return to 2.5% Withholding Tax

Construction firms operating under the umbrella of the Federation of Construction Industry want the Federal Government to revert to charging withholding tax at 2.5 per cent.

The President, FOCI, Mr Nasiru Dantata, stated this at the group’s 62nd Annual General Meeting in Abuja on Wednesday.

He said the feedback received from individual companies that make up the body showed that they wanted the government to revert to charging withholding tax at 2.5 per cent.

According to him, member companies also complained about increased challenges in doing business in Nigeria as well as the high debt profile that threatens the survival of the construction industry.

“The discussions with member companies are driving our policy initiatives as an organisation. We will continue to liaise with all members and we appeal that a monthly report be sent to FOCI to further strengthen our understanding of members’ activities and establish a reliable database for decision making,” Dantata said.

Meanwhile, the Minister of Science and Technology, Dr Ogbonnaya Onu, has challenged the Association of Indigenous Construction Contractors of Nigeria to strive to improve their skills and competiveness to enable them bid and compete for jobs in other parts of the world.

Onu gave the charge when the leaders of the association paid him a courtesy visit in his office in Abuja on Wednesday to seek for patronage and referral in the award of contracts in government ministries.

The minister called on members of the body to take up the challenge in the national interest, assuring them that the ministry would support and encourage all Nigerian professionals in the award of contracts on infrastructural development.

He said that the Executive Order 5 would bring a silent revolution that would enable Nigerian firms to compete for jobs in the United States of America in the next 15 years, adding that his ministry was taking the lead in making sure that the country moved in a new direction of a knowledge-based economy.