The
nation currently needs a $14 billion annual investment in its
infrastructure facilities, the Coordinating Minister for the Economy and
Minister of Finance, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, has said.
Speaking at the Public Private Partnership, PPP, stakeholders’ workshop
organized by the African Development Bank, AfDB, in Abuja, yesterday,
she said the Federal Government could not afford the entire funding
requirement, therefore, making private sector investment in
infrastructure inevitable.
According to her, “To
fund infrastructure, Nigeria needs about $14 billion every year, out of
which $10 billion should come from the federal level. And this estimate
is not comprehensive because it is likely to be higher when the total
financial outlay needed to fund the Infrastructure Master plan is
calculated.
“Currently the country’s spending on infrastructure
is about $6 billion, so there is a big gap that needs to be filled. We
are talking about something in the region of $8 billion. That is why
PPPs are very important to Nigeria at the moment”.
Dr.
Okonjo-Iweala noted that some of the PPP arrangements of the past were
bogged down by certain inadequacies in the frameworks of the deals,
making them unable to progress as successfully as anticipated.
She,
therefore, stated that there was need for a review of the PPPs in such a
way that the government and the Nigerian public could derive the
desired benefits under a legal framework that would be fair to all
parties.
Past arrangements, she pointed out, were skewed in
favour of private investors, leaving the Nigerian government to bear
virtually all the risks, with private investors, sometimes, asking for
as much as 30 per cent return on their investment.
PPPs
represent a dynamic form of inter-sectoral cooperation that is being
rapidly adopted and exploited by many jurisdictions worldwide.
Globally, PPPs have become a sustainable mechanism for financing infrastructural and other development projects.
Credit: Emma Ujah/Vanguard
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