Debt capital panacea for Nigeria’s infrastructure deficit – Olabinjo

The Managing Director/ Chief Executive Officer, Skystone Capital & Investment Limited, Ola Olabinjo, has identified debt capital financing as the major solution to the country’s infrastructure deficit.

Olabinjo explained that the country’s infrastructure deficit and needs cannot be addressed with yearly budgetary allocations.

Olabinjo said at a meeting in Lagos that the quest by the Federal Government to develop the critical infrastructure needed to attract investment, growth and development could only be achieved through debt capital financing.

He, therefore, urged Nigerians to embrace opportunities inherent in the debt capital in solving the lingering infrastructure deficit.

Olabinjo said that the continued allocation and appropriation in the budget for development of the critical infrastructure sector of the economy, amounted to paying lip service to infrastructure development.

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“The budget allocation for infrastructure for the 2021 fiscal year is a drop of water in the ocean.

“It cannot maintain the existing infrastructure let alone develop new ones.

“The only way to think out of the box and think afresh is new ways of tackling infrastructure development,” he said.

He said that government as a matter of urgency must put in place friendly and attractive business policies that would not be inimical to both local and foreign investors.

Olabinjo said that legal/regulatory framework must be right to attract the needed debt capital for infrastructure development.

He said that Nigeria cannot extricate itself from the infrastructural deficit it found itself presently, if it continued to allocate and appropriate funds in the budget for building of roads, development of the educational sector, amongst others.

“We need to reassess and rethink the way we go about financing projects in the domestic economy.

“Debt market is still a major source of financing that can bring back moribund companies,” Olabinjo said.