FG Needs $250bn For Infrastructure – VP Osinbajo

FG Needs $250bn For Infrastructure – VP Osinbajo

Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo on Thursday said the country required $25bn annually for the next 10 years to take its infrastructure to a sustainable level.

Osinbajo spoke at a knowledge sharing forum on Public-Private Partnership jointly organised by the African Development Bank Group and the Ministry of Finance at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.

He was represented at the forum by the Special Adviser to the President on Economic Matters, Dr. Adeyemi Dipeolu.

“It is estimated that Nigeria requires about $25bn annually for the next 10 years to grow its infrastructure to sustainable levels. It is obvious that this cannot be funded entirely by the public sector, which brings the Public-Private Partnership model to the forefront of our consideration,” he said.

Osinbajo quoted the National Infrastructure Master Plan as putting Nigeria’s current infrastructure stock at between 20 per cent and 25 per cent of the Gross Domestic Product, which he noted was below the international benchmark of about 70 per cent.

He said given its significant infrastructure deficit, Nigeria was most likely to experience growth if significant investment was made in the building of roads, bridges, railways, ports, airports, housing, dams, telecommunications facilities and electric power.

Osinbajo added, “It is for such reasons that the administration of President Buhari has made investment in infrastructure a major priority and policy focus.

“In the 2016 budget, the government has proposed to spend N1.84tn on capital projects, amounting to about 30 per cent of the entire budget. Even though this is unprecedented in recent times, there is a realisation that this figure is still way below what the country should ideally be investing in infrastructure.”

Osinbajo also said while paucity of funds was one of the major reasons for looking at PPP opportunities, there were other advantages to be derived.

Some of these, he said, included a more efficient procurement regime, rigorous analysis and market testing of costs, as well as more efficient operation and maintenance of infrastructure.

The Vice-President expressed fears over the risk involved in using pension assets to fund infrastructure.

Meanwhile, the Federal Government on Thursday signed a number of agreements that would add more than 5,000 megawatts of electricity to the national grid.

According to a statement by the Senior Special Assistant to the Vice-President on Media and Publicity, Mr. Laolu Akande, the agreements were signed by the government, the World Bank, Niger Delta Power Holding Company, Nigerian Bulk Electricity Trading, and a gas supplier, Seven Energy.

The integrated gas firm is said to be investing about $500m in the construction of a gas processing facility at the Uquo Field in Akwa Ibom State.

Akande said an agreement for a Partial Risk Guarantee between the NDPHC and the World Bank was signed to secure the supply of about 130 million cubic feet per day of gas to Calabar National Integrated Power Plant by Seven Energy.