By Folasade Akpan/08059110536
Abuja, May 27, 2021 Mrs Zainab Ahmed, Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, said that from the 2021/2022 budget cycle, all infrastructure projects should be screened for Public Private Partnership (PPP) viability.
Ahmed stated this on Thursday in Abuja at a webinar organised by the Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE) on “Financing PPP to boost infrastructure delivery in Nigeria”.
According to her, the projects should be in compliance with National Integrated Infrastructure Master Plan (NIIMP), be approved by the ministry and the BPE before inclusion in national budgets and subsequent procurement.
The minister, who also doubles as the Vice-Chairman, National Council on Privatisation, said the present administration was committed to development of the country’s infrastructure through PPP arrangements.
Nigeriaâs government is stepping up a drive to improve its decrepit infrastructure with a series of billion dollar projects as president Muhammadu Buhari seeks to pull Africaâs largest economy out of its worst recession in 40 years.
While the move should boost an economy hit by plunging oil prices and the coronavirus pandemic, critics have complained that they favour his native north and question a lack of transparency as well as the involvement of Chinese backers.
The government this month broke ground on a $2bn internationally-funded rail line connecting the countryâs north to neighbouring Niger, and announced it was forming Infraco, a public-private infrastructure fund with N1tn ($2.6bn) in seed capital from the Central Bank of Nigeria, Nigeria Sovereign Investment Authority and the Africa Finance Corporation, a mostly privately owned pan-African project finance firm.
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By Folasade Akpan
Over the years, the challenge of providing adequate infrastructure for Nigerians has been a herculean task for government at all levels and the Federal Government has at several occasions called on organisations to help in bridging the gap.
The Vice President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo, at an event in 2020 said that in spite of government interventions over the years, Nigeria still faces a huge infrastructural deficit, which is constraining rapid economic growth.
He had said that according to the Nigerian Integrated Infrastructure Masterplan (NIIMP) and the Economic Recovery and Growth Plan (ERGP), Nigeria needs up to three trillion dollars over the next 30 years to bridge its infrastructure gap.