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The Managing Director, Sigma Pensions, Dave Uduanu has called for more collaboration between the private and public sector to enable the country achieve economic growth and development, in line with government’s growth plan as contained in its ‘Economic and Growth Recovery Plan (ERGP) document.
Uduanu also called on government to do more in creating sustainable investment opportunities for private sector to thrive in Nigeria.
He said this recently at the Rand Merchant Bank’s 5th anniversary in Lagos recently.
Speaking on the side-lines, Uduanu said: “The key is for the private sector to engage more with the government, suggesting that investment banks and intermediaries should develop projects that investors such as insurance and pension funds can invest in.”
When asked if pension’s funds would invest in infrastructure development, he said: “The pension funds are looking at forming a consortium to look at such investments because those are large scale investments and such investments are usually beyond one pension fund. So we can work with some of the Development Finance Institutions (DFI) to help prepare, teach and organise these investments and then bring them to the market essentially, to make them investable.”
He further added that with the ERGP in place, engaging the private sector to support funding in infrastructure requires prompt action to meet its growth plan as stated in the ERGP document.
Uduanu added: “The economic growth and recovery plan envisages increasing the government’s revenue from 6 percent to 15 percent in 5 years. So that seems to me that they are in a hurry. So in terms of timeline, these are things that need to happen now. So if you look at tax breaks government can begin to do it now. But increasing the revenue of government, essentially, government needs to improve tax administration. On the fiscal side and some of the interest rate incentives we are asking for, it is for government to focus on the right things and they are not difficult to do and I think if you concentrate and put your mind to it, it can be done within a period of one year.
Furthermore: “We are looking to come together to invest alongside with the government on a PPP basis on big projects. Some of these projects are beyond the capacity of individual pension funds. I am optimistic that some infrastructure deals would be done. We are cautious of the fact, but we don’t want to rush into it without doing our investment analysis.”
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