$2.3tn Needed to Resolve Infrastructure Challenges – Finance minister

The Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Zainab Ahmed, has said $2.3trn is needed to modernise Nigeria’s infrastructure over the next 21 years.

The minister disclosed this while speaking at the Integrated Infrastructural Research for Development conference held in Abuja on Friday.

She stated that the revised National Integrated Infrastructure Master Plan was meant to fund key sectors in the economy such as power, rail, roads, housing and agriculture from 2022 to 2043.

She said, “In the national development plan, we have cost the investment that is required; $2.3trn with a private sector contribution of 86 per cent anticipated between 2021 to 2025.

“These are downturn investment targets, but they represent the baseline requirements to build a modern Nigeria, an industrialised nation that we deserve for ourselves and also for our future generation.”

Speaking further, Ahmed noted that extensive consultation with the private sector had created an innovative approach to financing infrastructure projects.

Citing an example, she said the Road Infrastructure Development and Refurbishment Investment Tax Credit Scheme launched in 2019 leveraged private sector expertise to construct, repair and maintain critical federal roads.

“We started the Road Infrastructure Development and Refurbishment Investment Tax Credit Scheme launched in 2019 to leverage private sector capital via tax credits, and provide private sector expertise to construct, repair and maintain critical road infrastructure in key economic growth corridors and industrial clusters in Nigeria.

“With this project, the road projects have been approved and are at various stages of construction to the use of tax credit to finance the rehabilitation and reconstruction of road projects across six geopolitical zones of our country.

“So far, we have issued four circles of SUKUK bonds totalling N64.5bn, and there’s a fifth circle that is under preparation that will be worth about N250bn. This is what we have issued so far and deployed for specific road projects across the country.”