Kwara State government has disclosed its intention to launch Infrastructure Development Fund with a code name “InfraFund Kwara – (IF-K)” with an initial investment of N4.2 billion centred on energy sector and other key infrastructure portfolios in the fourth quarter of 2016.
Muideen Akorede, senior special assistant on media and communications to Governor Abdulfatah Ahmed, disclosed this during an interaction with community leaders in his office in Ilorin, the state capital on Monday.
Akorede was quoted to have said that IF-K was codified into the Kwara State Public Private Partnership Law, which the governor assented to in 2015.
According to Akorede, the IF-K project is as a result of the Kwara Infrastructure Investment and Finance strategy, which he approved following an infrastructure assessment exercise concluded in 2014.
He said the outcome of the exercise showed an estimated N225 billion deficit value of infrastructure across all the 16 local government areas and spanning all sectors, which required both government and private investment, aimed at boosting the state’s productivity and wealth creation.
The governor said “the main objectives of IF-K were to provide guided, systemic and outward facing framework for continuous and consistent infrastructure development, optimally leveraged private sector or resources for infrastructure development and maximise the state’s resource allocation policies.”
Providing further details of IF-K, Abayomi Ogunsola, chief economic assistant to Governor Ahmed, said the fund would boost confidence in investors and encourage broader and deeper interactions with the state government from different types of private and non-private partners.
He claimed that it would also promote banking and non-banking financial intermediary participation in infrastructure funding, provide incentives and serve as catalyst to mobilising appropriate private sector capital, efficiency and expertise for the state’s infrastructure projects.
IFK, according to Ogunsola, also has an expected outcome of attaining stable development of Kwara residents and businesses, saying IF-K project is one of the avenues for meeting the state’s current infrastructure needs and also a critical vehicle for pro actively meeting future infrastructure needs.
