The Vice President of Nigeria, Senator Kashim Shettima has said that local stakeholders can better fund the country’s $3tn infrastructure investment deficit rather than foreign borrowings.
Shettima disclosed this on Wednesday at the opening ceremony of the third West Africa Capital Market Conference with the theme, ‘Infrastructural Deficit and Sustainable Financing in an Integrated West African Capital Market’ held in Lagos.
Shettima, who was represented by Dr Tope Fasua, his Special Adviser on Economic Affairs, said that the infrastructural deficit in the West African sub-region means that the capital markets must improve their operations.
“The centrality of capital markets to Nigeria’s development trajectory, especially to the evolution of our corporate sector, our industries and perhaps most importantly, our infrastructural development, cannot be overemphasised.
“Just two days ago, on Monday, 23rd of October, 2023, at the opening of the 29th Annual Conference of the Nigerian Economic Summit, His Excellency President Bola Ahmed Tinubu sought the cooperation and intervention of Nigeria’s private sector – and specifically the capital market – toward the funding of Nigeria’s $3 trillion infrastructure gap, which he said should not require 300 years to cover – as propounded in some texts – but ten years.
“If this is so for Nigeria, it presupposes that the entire region has similar – or perhaps larger – infrastructural deficits waiting to be filled. They are better filled from the inside, not through foreign borrowing alone,” he said.
The federal government had fixed a 10-year timeline to address its infrastructural gap.
Recall that the African Development Bank (AfDB) stressed that Nigeria needs $3 trillion in Infrastructure Investment.
