The Managing Director, The Infrastructure Bank, Adekunle Oyinloye, has said that Nigeria needed 35 billion dollars per annum for five years to sustain a robust economic growth.
Oyinloye, said this in Abuja while presenting a paper on “Economic Indices and Relationship with Infrastructure Development” at a forum for set 1988 Economics Class, Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria.
While speaking on the role of infrastructure in economic development, Oyinloye said capital investments in infrastructure was a reliable avenue for engendering sustainable economic growth and development.
“According to the National Integrated Infrastructure Master Plan (NIIMP), Nigeria needs about $35 billion per annum for a succeeding period of five years to sustain robust economic growth.
“That is what we need but we have never gone beyond about $12 billion; so it estimated that the infrastructure funding needs for the next 30 years is in the region of $3 billion.
“The NIIMP relies on empirical data to identify critical linkages between economic growth, sustainability and Infrastructure development.
“And emphatically noted that developed economies typically record core infrastructure stock and value of about 70 per cent of this stock as proportion of their GDP.
“With power and transportation infrastructure usually accounting for at least half of that total stock volume.
“In contrast to national benchmark however, Nigeria’s core infrastructure stock is estimated as at today to be around 20 to 25 per cent of our GDP,” he said.
According to Oyinloye, infrastructure is a key ingredient for enhancing the nation’s productivity and economic growth.
He, however, said it was important to utilize relevant economic indices to ascertain its level of investment.
He explained that for emerging and frontier economies, the imperative for governments in terms of infrastructure investments was to attract private participation in infrastructure financing.
Also, Dr Salamatu Isah, the Head of Department of Economics, ABU, in her remarks said lack of infrastructure had been a major problem in the country.
Isah recalled a recent statistics by the NBS which showed that services and other sectors had the highest rates while the manufacturing sector had the lowest.
According to her, the low rate performance by the manufacturing sector is due to the obvious challenges of infrastructure in the country.
She however called on the government and relevant authorities to ensure infrastructure development in the country so as to improve the basic standard of living of Nigerians.