Atiku Calls for Setting Up of Infrastructure Development Unit in Presidency

Chuks Okocha in Abuja

Former Vice President and the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the 2023 general election, Atiku Abubukar, has called for the establishment of an Infrastructure Development Unit (IDU) within the Presidency.

In a statement he signed, a copy of which THISDAY obtained yesterday, the former vice president stated that establishing an IDU in the Presidency, with a coordinating function and a specific mandate of working with the Ministries Departments and Agencies (MDAs), would help fast track and drive the process of infrastructure development in the country.

According to Atiku, this would also strengthen the capacity of the Infrastructure Concession Regulatory Commission (ICRC) to promote Public Private Partnerships (PPP) in the construction and management of infrastructure across the country.

He also said it would help to broaden the scope of InfraCredit to complement the operation of the IDU by de-risking investments in infrastructure to build investor confidence in taking risks and investing capital.

Other goals of the unit, he said, was that it would  “open up the entire power sector from generation to transmission for private investments.

“Going forward, the goal of every developing country must be to achieve universal access to electricity, ensuring that every citizen benefits from reliable power for daily needs, education, healthcare, and economic activities.

“This would be in line with the SDG 7 (Sustainable Development Goal 7), which aims to ensure affordable, reliable, sustainable, and modern energy for all. In this way, Nigeria must double efforts to support the likes of Prof Nnaji.

“Nigerian governments both federal and state must provide the business environment that will make the private enterprises more competitive by reducing their costs of set-up and operations, improving their margins and making government policies more predictable.”

He added: “In particular, the authorities must create an environment that will enable distribution companies to recover full costs for power supplied to their consumers with firm commitment to a metering programme for all customers.

“The scourge of electricity theft must be dealt with through a viable partnership between investors in the distribution companies and the government with legislative support for prompt action against electricity theft.

“Attention must be paid to improve access to credit by enterprises willing to invest in the power sector.

“Government must incentivise the private sector to increase greenfield investments in the development of off-grid solutions to intensify electrification, particularly of rural communities not yet serviced by the grid.”