Insecurity Discouraging Equity Flow into Nigeria, Warns Experts

Olawale Ajimotokan

Stakeholders have warned that the gale insecurity across the country is discouraging the flow of foreign equity into the economy and compounding the infrastructural deficit in the country.

Managing Partner of DPH, Dr. Onuoha Nnachi, issued the admonition when he was addressing newsmen in Abuja, with other stakeholders ahead of the national dialogue on infrastructure, scheduled for the nation’s capital on April 27.

He said the situation has become alarming as foreign investors now see Nigeria as a market where they can dump their products rather than a place where they can produce.

He urged stakeholders to come up with practical ways of fixing the infrastructural deficit as only few countries are now willing to lend the country money as it has exceeded its debt obligations as its total debt stock is over N4 trillion. 

“Our debt is with the Chinese and other Asian nations are on the high side. We have also explored and exhausted the Islamic option of financing, which is the Sukuk bond. And you can imagine when the debt is running to N4 trillion in terms of total debt. That is why experts are coming together to discuss on infrastructural deficit. We must finance our infrastructure development from different perspectives and the only institution that is firm is the capital market,” Nnachi said.

He also quantified the country’s infrastructure deficit that was done in the last evaluation stood at $3.01 trillion across all economic sectors and the six geo- political regions.

“I was part of those that did the work. We also came out with a recommendation on how to fund this infrastructural deficit. Government was supposed to take responsibility of 80 per cent while the other percentage was to be borne by the private sector. The mechanism for the private sector to do that was also developed But, whether government has adopted that has become a secondary case,” he said.

He said the infrastructure dialogue will address how to raise funds through the capital market to finance the widening infrastructure deficit in the country adding the experts will brainstorm and make their recommendations to the government.