The Federal Government and the private sector on Tuesday signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) that would enable the parties jointly sell the $2.9 trillion Nigeria Integrated Infrastructure Master Plan (NIIMP) document to potential investors.
The National Planning Commission signed on behalf of government while the private sector signed under the aegis of the Africa Infrastructure Summit Group.
At the signing ceremony in Abuja, Fidelis Ugbo, secretary to the National Planning Commission, said the agreement was a public private partnership arrangement that would facilitate infrastructure development in the country since experience has shown that government lacks the capacity to fund infrastructure.
The Federal Government, last year, through the planning ministry developed the NIIMP, a 30-year infrastructure strategy estimated to cost about $2.9 trillion. The plan was also to raise the nation’s infrastructure stock from 35 percent to 40 percent of GDP to about 70 percent of GDP by 2043.
Ugbo said having developed the document the next stage was to ensure that it is effectively implemented by bringing in the private sector that is expected to be stakeholders in actualising the content, especially the funding aspect.
“This partnership is expected to create the opportunity for selling the NIIMP document which we have produced. It also creates an opportunity for the private sector to begin to know those things that they can put their money and expect a return in the development of our infrastructure,” Ugbo said.
He recalled that in the course of developing the document, a business support group was instituted as a separate technical working group which brought in the perspective of what role the private sector could play in the entire process as well as their expectations from government in order to promote and sell the document to the private sector investors.
Onuoha Nwachi, principal consulting partner, Africa Infrastructure Summit Group, noted that the partnership meant that the parties’ ability to unveil possibilities exist within the Nigerian economy that investors can actually tap into.
“What we are here to do in conjunction with the commission is our ability to turn potential into opportunities for investors to key into it,” he stated.
He noted that the support and encouragement that the group had received so far from the planning commission had given them confidence that the partnership would yield good results.
“That encouragement would lead us into achieving greater heights!’ He added.
Albert Okumagba, managing director, BGL Securities, and a member of the group, said the signing was a major development for the private sector consortium and the Federal Government.
