Stakeholders in Nigeria’s infrastructure sector are urging the federal government to harness private sector funding for infrastructural development.
They said current revenue from the public sector was insufficient to bridge the infrastructure gap in Nigeria.
They made the call during a panel discussion at the ongoing Nigerian Economic Summit titled; “Accelerating Infrastructure Development” in Abuja on Tuesday.
Experts however identified a lack of transparency in public procurement processes as a significant obstacle hindering investment from the private sector.
Jobson Ewalefoh, director general of the Infrastructure Concession Regulatory Commission, highlighted that private sector involvement is essential for accelerating infrastructure growth and achieving government objectives.
“We have a lot of infrastructure gaps in Nigeria across different sectors. Be it transportation, energy, health, housing and so on. But the present revenue of the government may not take us to where we want to be,” Ewalefoh said.
“We need to put on our thinking hat and re-strategize. This made me think, the only way we can bridge the infrastructure gap in this country at this current rate, is to harness the private sector funding,” he explained.
“We also need a shift of mindset that the government can provide all the infrastructure needs we have. The private sector funding will unlock the infrastructure development we need.”
Ewalefoh noted that Nigeria must follow models from other countries who have gotten it right to ensure it meets the infrastructure goals. He cited Rwanda as one of the countries in Africa at about 7.2 growth rate.
He also proposed that Nigeria develop the right framework.
Oyebode Oyetunde, executive director of the African Development Bank, noted that one of the key things Nigeria needs was to connect the ecosystem, emphasising that collaboration between the private and public sectors is required to achieve greater results in execution of any meaningful infrastructure project execution.
According to him, good governance and transparency are crucial for instilling investors’ confidence.
“We need an ecosystem approach, and we have to learn the discipline of exploring and working hard to see what we need to pass on to the ecosystem as a whole.”
“We need to have an ecosystem. We have systems in different places, but when you connect them you create an ecosystem. And if you connect them enough, then you can see real transformation.”
“But if you don’t have sufficient connections and the parts of the systems are not strong enough, you won’t see transformation, even though you have almost everything. Sometimes with Nigeria, as you were saying, the solutions are not simple because our problems are complex.”
Read also: Strategies to strengthen infrastructural development in Africa’s public health sector
He urged the country to use private sector finance to fund public infrastructures, noting that the system is broken which is fuelling rising costs.
Dele Sotumbo, CEO of Stanbic IBTC Capital Limited, said for Nigeria to solve its infrastructure problems, governments at all levels must ensure transparency in all their transaction processes.
He argued that lack of non-transparency has over the years scared investors away and insisted that without a commitment to transparent processes, the potential for private sector funding will remain untapped.
He emphasised that if the government fails to do things right, funding will never come.
“Government, the federal or state, if not local government, lack the financial muscle to push infrastructure through, Hence, all that we’ve been speaking about over the years as to how we attract the private sector funding into infrastructure development in Nigeria.”
“Our problem is not lack of plans. If we are going to solve this problem in Nigeria, yes we have beautiful plans, but let’s always insert the concept of transparency into whatever we do, because if that is lacking, forget it. We’ll only be telling stories.”
Join BusinessDay whatsapp Channel, to stay up to date
Open In Whatsapp
