Nigeria Backbone Infrastructure Limited, a multinational corporation, has declared plans to invest $172 billion in the development of diverse infrastructure sectors within the country.
This investment, utilising alternative financing options, will be allocated to mineral resources, energy, agriculture, housing, and transportation sectors for the next 22 years, a statement by the company said on Saturday.
The administration of President Bola Tinubu has openly reaffirmed its commitment to enhancing foreign direct investment inflows into the country, while also promoting alternative financing for the construction of essential infrastructure projects.
Last year, the Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment, Doris Aniete, said the government has secured $30bn in commitments from foreign investors.
Despite this amount, Nigeria still requires investments to reduce its infrastructural gap which requires $3 trillion over a period of 30 years according to the implementation of the National Integrated Master Plan.
The Group Chief Executive Officer, Henry Owonka, said the company with foreign partners is seeking approval for a joint venture model to facilitate its planned investment in the country.
Owonka emphasised that the company intends to align with the current administration’s infrastructure plan, highlighting that a consistent influx of investment, as proposed by the company, is preferable to isolated investments by other investors especially in the mining sector.
He said, “What we are looking for is for us to structure our program of investment, we are not looking for a sovereign guarantee which will deplete the foreign reserves but innovative ways to collateralize those natural resources that the country has in abundance. The president has verbally approved our request.
“The company expressed its interest in investing in the range of commodities. We are seeking approval for a joint venture model because in that way we can draw more investors not only in the country but also outside the country. Because when you have a joint venture with the government, it’s better and that’s what we are seeking rather than for them to just issue land to us.”
The CEO stating plans for the mining sector noted that the company is ready to invest $4bn, “to explore mineral resources but we need data and that is also one of the offers we proposed so that we can bring in our expertise and help the government obtain accurate data and then we can explore those minerals. This partnership will help the government plan to reduce dependence on crude oil. We also doing this across all the ministries because it’s a $172bn investment drive.”
In a presentation at the Ministry of Solid Minerals Development, the Chief Operations Officer, Clement Kwegyir-Afful, explained that the investment drive is to reduce the huge infrastructural gap in the country.
