Infrastructure Corporation of Nigeria (InfraCorp) has announced the appointment of Lazarus Angbazo as its founding chief executive officer and managing director.
Angbazo brings over 25 years of experience in infrastructure project development, investments, and capital raising; setting up new businesses; and leading global management teams.
He has deep knowledge of African markets and has worked across InfraCorp’s priority sectors including power, renewables, transport and logistics, and industry. Angbazo was most recently partner, head of portfolio operations West Africa, at Helios Investments Partners, and former President and CEO of General Electric (GE) Nigeria, managing GE’s businesses in power, oil & gas, renewables, healthcare, transportation, aviation, and GE capital.
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Angbazo serves on several public and private company boards including Nasarawa State Government’s Economic Advisory Council, Bingham University, Axxela, Tema LNG, AFGRI, Starsight, Partners International, and Opportunity International. “I am excited about the opportunity to drive development and innovation in infrastructure solutions for Nigeria,” said Angbazo.
“InfraCorp’s unique mandate consolidates the great work that the promoters – Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Africa Finance Corporation (AFC) and Nigerian Sovereign Investment Authority (NSIA) are doing. I look forward to working with all stakeholders to deliver competitive returns for shareholders, while driving new frontiers for Nigeria’s sustainable infrastructure development.” “Massive financing is urgently required to build the infrastructure that Nigeria deserves.” said Angbazo.
“The good news is that much of this investment is compatible with competitive returns for investors through leveraging the expertise, relationships, and blended finance models.” InfraCorp will employ development finance, commercial debt, and private equity structures, supported by a blend of concessional finance, grants and “soft equity” alongside commercial equity provided by development finance institutions, private equity funds, pension fund managers and commercial investors.
InfraCorp was created to mobilize capital from the promoters, financial institutions, and private capital for critical infrastructure in support of Nigeria’s post-Covid recovery. InfraCorp will work with the 4 appointed infrastructure asset managers and leverage the promoters’ resources – assets, capital, expertise, and opportunities – to expand the overall portfolio of public and private infrastructure and industrial assets. Its fund-raising strategy will target high quality long-term institutional investors, sovereign wealth funds, and other local and global sources of public and private capital.”
Godwin Emefiele, governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria and chairman of the board of InfraCorp, commented “In recognition of the role improved infrastructure could play in the development of our economy, along with the need to leverage private sector capital in funding and developing the over N35 trillion infrastructure deficit in Nigeria, the estimated amount required to build an efficient infrastructure ecosystem in Nigeria, CBN, NSIA and AFC have now operationalized InfraCorp.
InfraCorp expects to raise N15 trillion of capital over the next few years leveraging on the Promoters N1 trillion of committed capital to significantly progress closing the gap. I am pleased that as promoters after months of structuring and stakeholder engagements, we have set up a world class board and appointed a highly experienced CEO to drive InfraCorp.
The CEO is now setting up his team and working closely with the asset managers to deliver the first set of strategic projects. InfraCorp is expected to set the standard template that will help in enabling greater private sector funding for public infrastructure projects in Nigeria.”
