ABUJA, Dec. 4 (Xinhua) -- A realistic solution to Nigeria's infrastructural gap would be a strong synergy between the public sector and the private sector of the country, Nigerian Vice President Yemi Osinbajo said.
Therefore, deepening infrastructure would require adopting new models of investment, among others, as reliance on public expenditure alone is no longer sufficient to meet the need, Osinbajo said in an official statement late Thursday.
In spite of the government's interventions over the years, the most populous African country still faces a huge infrastructural deficit which is constraining its rapid economic growth.
The Nigerian government has been considering the public-private partnership, as well as other approaches, to complement and boost financing for the development and maintenance of infrastructure in Nigeria, said Osinbajo at a webinar organized by the country's Bureau of Public Enterprises.
"It is clear that this (infrastructure) deficit can only be made up by private investment ... The private sector is 92 percent of Gross Domestic Product while the public sector is a mere 8 percent," the Nigerian vice president said.
He said the country might need up to 3 trillion U.S. dollars to bridge the infrastructural gap over the next 30 years.
The country, Osinbajo said, will benefit immensely from huge local and foreign private sector resources as it has become glaring that the traditional method of building infrastructure through budgetary allocations is inadequate and set to become harder because of increasingly limited fiscal space.
Effectively implementing the public-private partnership models for Nigeria, if properly designed and executed, would unlock innovative infrastructure financing and management in a transparent and more efficient manner, he added. Enditem
