For Nigeria to close its infrastructure gap and bring itself up to the international benchmark for infrastructure stock, it needs to spend as much as $2.9 trillion in the next 30 years and 48 percent of this sum, representing $1.4 trillion, has to come from the private sector.
A breakdown of the $2.9 trillion shows funding sources that include private sector contributing 48 percent, which equals $1.392 billion; Federal Government, 29 percent, $841million; states and local governments, 23 percent, $667 million, and donor agencies, 0.4 percent, $11.6 million, giving a total of $2.911 trillion.
As in many other growth and development indices, Nigeria lags behind many countries of the world in its infrastructure stock. The international benchmark for infrastructure stock as a percentage of GDP is 70 percent, but Nigeria currently stands at 25 percent.
This, perhaps, explains the country’s low ranking in the 2015 Africa Competitiveness Report by the World Economic Forum, which ranks Nigeria’s infrastructure 134th out of 144 countries. Again, the World Bank’s latest Ease of Doing Business Index ranks Nigeria 169th out of 189 countries.
Frederic Oladeinde, director, corporate and investment planning at Lagos Metropolitan Area Transport Authority (LAMATA), who disclosed this at a forum in Lagos, also said Nigeria needed $78 billion over the next four years to finance its infrastructure deficit with $37 billion expected to come from the private sector.
Lagos, Nigeria’s commercial capital, is grossly deficient in infrastructure stock, especially roads, which has made transportation system in the state a nightmare. Unconfirmed report says Lagos is the most populous city in Africa with over 20 million inhabitants.
It is the hub of Nigeria’s economic, commercial and industrial activities; contributes 25 percent of the country’s GDP; its economy is larger than those of Ivory Coast, Ghana, Madagascar, etc, and about 45 percent of Nigeria’s skilled manpower resides in this city.
Though all these are positive attributes of the state, they come at great cost as congestion is estimated to cost the local economy $7.5 million daily and, according to Oladeinde, both congestion and air quality in this city are already at intolerable levels, even as car ownership rate here is expected to grow from 80 per 1,000 people to 200 per 1,000 people, if nothing is done.
The state government has a vision to provide a modern integrated multi-modal public transport system that will make the state a world-class city, he said. The state has therefore developed a Strategic Transport Master Plan (STMP), which aims to develop a fully integrated mass rapid transit system to cover activity centres identified in the mega city.
The STMP targets six rail lines, one monorail line, 14 bus rapid transit (BRT) routes, two cable car projects, and over 20 water routes. The state’s future road network targets 8843 kilometres, 15 percent of which will be expressway, totalling 1288 kilometres.
There will be 747 kilometres of major roads, representing 8 percent of the entire length while main roads will be 1980 kilometres, 22 percent, and local roads will be 4828 kilometres, representing 55 percent of the whole length.
The STMP extension proposal calls for more than 1,600 kilometre of projects for both private and public transport, Oladeinde informed, which he said requires about $20.7 billion of initial investment, about 20 percent occurring in 2017, 45 percent by 2022 and the remaining 35 percent by 2032.
