Nigeria losses N2.03trn from poor infrastructure yearly– ICRC

Nigeria losses two percent of its Gross Domestic Product (GDP) yearly due to inadequate infrastructure, Chidi Izuwah, the Acting Director General, Infrastructure Concession Regulatory Commission (ICRC) said Friday.

Izuwah said this in Abuja at the signing of a Memorandum of Cooperation between the Nigerian government and Aninver, an infrastructure finance and investment company.

The Country’s 2016 nominal GDP is N101.59 trillion and two per cent of that figure gives N2.03 trillion.

“Basically in Africa close to two percent of the GDP is lost due to lack of infrastructure in terms of productivity, in terms of transportation.

“You can do the calculation. If you look at what our GDP is and find out what two per cent of our GDP is, that is something we lose in terms of productivity.

“That is why we keep complaining about our infrastructure deficit. Look at what impacts you.

“How many people go to work late every day because of infrastructure. Look at power, look at our hospitals, look at the impact in housing, in our airports, look at transportation. The impact is unbelievable just around us.

“We feel the impact of that infrastructure deficit every day in our lives. Every Nigerian feels it no matter where you are so that is very key.

“But by providing them the necessary infrastructure, that loss will now become a gain so you don’t lose it, you continue to grow then we grow our GDP, grow our economy.

“If we grow our per Capital income, it means we are growing our prosperity, a bigger cake for everybody to enjoy in this our country,’’ he said.

Izuwah said that the signing of the Cooperation was important in the drive to making Nigeria a Public Private Partnership hub in Africa.

“When it comes to PPP technical and regulatory information, international best practices, they (Aninver) are the best in the world.

“The platform they have gives us access to about 10,000 PPP professionals and regulators around the world.

“So what it means is that it gives us access into worldwide information about what works and doesn’t work in terms of PPP arrangements around the world,’’ he said.

Also, Alvaro de la Mama, a Senior Partner at Aninver, said the cooperation would enable Nigeria have access to successful PPP contracts taking place around the world.

“The MOU that we are signing today is because we have a platform that tracks all PPP projects globally and we are giving free access to the ICRC to our platform so that they can benefit from all the best international practices taking place around the world in terms of PPP projects.

“We are grateful to collaborate with them so that we make sure that all the PPP projects that are doing here in Nigeria follows the international best practices and are success projects,’’ he said.