By Peter Egwuatu
THE Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, yesterday, said infrastructure was key to Nigeria’s economy if the country must attain a single digit inflation.

The Governor of CBN, Mallam Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, declared that the apex bank had no mandate to provide infrastructure but stressed its importance to the development of the country.

Delivering a lecture entitled: “Infrastructure, industrialization and the Nigerian economy,” Sanusi said: “It is not our primary responsibility to provide infrastructure but as regulator of the banking industry, we have to encourage the development of infrastructure through financing by banks. There is no way the country can attain a single digit inflation when banks are providing all the infrastructure they need to carry out their operations.”

Meanwhile, Otunba Michael Balogun, Chairman of the occasion and founder, First City Monument Bank Plc, said: “Infrastructure is affecting the engineering, construction and other manufacturing companies and hence needed attention of the government. The Nigerian economy cannot move forward if we continue to have infrastructure dilapidation “

He commended the founder and management of Kresta Laurel for organising the public lecture and also for its success in the engineering sector of the economy.

Meanwhile, the CBN Governor, who was represented by Deputy Governor, Corporate Services, Alhaji Suleiman Barau, at the 2nd public lecture organised by Kresta Laurel Limited said “ infrastructure  plays an important role in growth performance of any economy. The development and maintenance of essential public infrastructure is a critical ingredient for sustained economic growth and poverty reduction. Poor infrastructure is perhaps the most binding constraint to growth among the emerging nations”.

He noted that manufacturers, investors and industrialists in Nigeria have consistently been stating  the poor state of the infrastructure in the country, which underscore its importanace.

According to him, “Infrastructure problems was ranked top, rated as nearly two and a half times worse than the next biggest problem (access to finance) in the World Bank’s investment climate survey (World Bank, 2002).Infrastructure is the capital stock that provides public goods and services. It creates the environment for productive activities to take place, encourage investment, allow wider movement of goods and people, facilitates information flows and helps to commercialise and diversify the economy”.

Highlighting the importance of industrialization and role of infrastructure, the CBN governor stresssed that the deplorable state of most infrastrcture facilities in Nigeria and some other African countries, especially on electricity, roads, railways, and water facilities seems to negate some of the benefits of infrastructure.

According to him, “The provision of infrastructure services had been much below standard both in terms of quality and quantity and in relative and absolute terms. The total length of paved roads in all sub-Saharan Africa except South Africa was estimated to be 171000 km as at 1997, and about 18 per cent less than the total paved roads in Portland alone with 206,000 km. Similarly, Africa accounts for only 20 per cent of telephone main lines globally.
All these have been attributed to the drastic reduction in government spending on infrastuctural facilities in the past, vandalisation of existing facilities, corruption, bureaucratic delays in the construction, maintenance and repairs of damages facilities”

To this extent, he enthused that the ability to elicit the necessary environment for infrastructural financing , industrial sector growth and economic development must revolve around the following: maintenance of appropriate macro economic environment, strong and deepened financial system with emphasis on the capital market, willingness of Nigerian entrepreneurs to envision right investment climate and go for it, appropriate government policies including current efforts of Infrastructure Concession and Regulatory Commission, amongst others.