‘With $510million, Nigeria in ten years will have modern rail transportation, steady power and energy and other western infrastructure’ said Mr Remi Babalola, the Minister of State for Finance.
According to the Minister, the Presidential Committee on Power Sector Reform had estimated that the rehabilitation and upgrading of the country’s electricity sector alone would require $85 billion by year 2020.
Dr Felix Ogbera, a special assistant (Technical) to the Ministry said that the Federal Government had also estimated that it would need over $100 billion for development of four areas such as power, rail, road, oil and gas. ‘These infrastructure and related investments are vital to achieving and sustaining a high double-digit annual growth rate necessary for Nigeria to achieve its Vision 2020.’
The government representatives acknowledging that the building of infrastructure is capital-intensive for the public sector alone to bear are increasing efforts to attract and partner with the private sector in infrastructure development through public-private partnership (PPP) and have constituted the Infrastructure Concession Regulatory Commission (ICRC) to spearhead the initiative.
The Minister of State for Finance also said that although the country was blessed with huge natural and human resources, they had not been tapped for rapid transformation of the economy and a noticeable feature of the Nigerian economy is the continued control of the oil and gas sector, but said that the Federal Government is now committed to the diversification of the econom
