The Minister of Interior, Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo, revealed that the Ministry successfully executed various multi-billion Naira capital projects in 2024, despite receiving zero capital allocation.
This achievement, he explained, was made possible by reviewing and enforcing existing contracts, compelling contractors to fulfill their obligations as stipulated in their agreements.
Speaking during the 2025 budget defense session before the National Assembly’s Joint Committee on Interior on Wednesday, Tunji-Ojo disclosed that some of the contracts dated as far back as 1999 had been abandoned by contractors, either in breach of contract terms or under Public-Private Partnership (PPP) or concession agreements.
“We were able to complete automation e-gates, the command and control center, resource centers, visa approval centers, solar farms, and other projects by thinking outside the box,” he said.
Tunji-Ojo emphasized that the Ministry achieved these milestones without incurring additional costs to the government.
“We didn’t spend a kobo of government money to do some of these things. What we did was avoid entering into new contracts. Instead, we reviewed existing ones and implemented value proposition management to ensure contractors fulfilled their obligations.
“For example, someone with a contract for issuing visa approval centers (VACs) hadn’t built a VAC center. We had to ensure they delivered. Another contractor providing border control solutions implemented the software component but failed to deliver the hardware, which is essential for e-gate solutions. I made it clear that contracts cannot be implemented partially — they must be executed holistically,” he said.
SOURCE: PeopleDailyNG