Infrastructure Deficit: IoD Decry Paucity of Funds, Weak Fiscal Regime

Gilbert Ekugbe

The Institute of Directors (IoD) has blamed the combinations of paucity of funds, poor implementation, poor maintenance culture, corruption, weak fiscal regime and policy summersaults for Nigeria’s huge infrastructure deficit.

Indeed, the Institute stated that despite numerous plans by successive government and regimes to address the infrastructure deficit in Nigeria, these factors have worked against Nigeria’s quest to achieve infrastructural development.

The president, IoD, Mrs. Ije Jidenma, at the Institute’s national stakeholders forum on infrastructure development in Nigeria, Nigeria’s infrastructure deficit is estimated at $100 billion annually, a figure that is 100 per cent above its annual infrastructural budget in the past few years. 

The President, ECOWAS Bank for Investment and Development, Mr George Donkor, noted that Nigeria had in its priority for infrastructural growth and development, focused on policies that finance infrastructural development through Public – Private Partnerships (PPP).

Donkor, represented by the Bank’s Director, Research and Strategic Planning, Mr. Macdonald Saye Goanue, said the country’s Infrastructure Company Limited (InfraCo) would substantially reduce its infrastructural deficit.

Deputy Director, Planning Division, Ministry of Aviation, Mrs Mama Edet, stated that the critical role of infrastructure in the lifespan of a country like Nigeria would spur economic growth to help local economies access global market.

The Founder, Centre for the Promotion of Private Enterprises (CPPE), Muda Yusuf, noted that at the heart of global competitiveness and production is infrastructure, said the private sector must invest in bankable infrastructural projects.

The president, Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN), Mansur Ahmed, called for a working implementation framework within the right legal arrangement and backing to ensure that the country’s infrastructural plans become a reality.