BY LEKE ADESERI
THE Minister of Works,  Arc. Mike Onolememen, has declared that the country is in the process of developing a National Integrated Infrastructure Master Plan (2014-2043).

According to him the move results from the fact that infrastructure stock in Nigeria today is far from being adequate which becomes even more evident when compared to countries such as Brazil, Turkey, India and South Africa.

Onolememmen said this recently in the United States of America at the occasion of the US-Nigeria infrastructure conference tagged “Building the Infrastructure for Nigeria’s vision 20:2020″.

In his keynote address, the minister said: “This conference underscores the importance the administration of President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan attaches to the development of infrastructure in Nigeria in pursuit of the nation’s economic well being.

The transformation agenda of the Federal Government of Nigeria is anchored on the vision 20:2020, which seeks to elevate the nation’s economy to be among the top 20 economies in the world in terms of growth in the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) by the year 2020.

“The transformation agenda is targeted at creating jobs to reduce unemployment; laying a foundation for economic growth; and improving the well being of Nigerians on a sustainable basis.

To achieve these goals, the Federal Government plans to focus its attention in the next five years on priority sectors such as Agriculture, Mining, Manufacturing, Oil and Gas, Trade and Investment, Health, Education, and Tourism.

“However, inadequate infrastructure continues to militate against the realization of the lofty objectives of the transformation agenda of the federal government of Nigeria and the nation’s vision 20:2020.”

The minister urged American businessmen and investors to use the opportunity as a launching pad to reclaim America’s place of pride in business development in Nigeria, by looking beyond its investments in oil and gas and take the lead in infrastructure investment, from transportation to housing infrastructure, from mining to manufacturing, and from tourism to information/ communication technology.

He said: “Africa has become an economic battle field of sort for the world’s economic giants. In the last two decades, there has been an upsurge in Chinese and European investments in Africa.

The United States of America has been a long friend of Nigeria through the efforts of both countries’ past leaders. Nigeria remains a major regional influence with the second largest economy in Africa, south of the Sahara.

“As this opportunity beckons, America’s businesses should seize the moment and invest in Nigeria’s infrastructure development in order to exert commanding business influence in the Africa continent.

When this happens, and I believe it will, not only will American businesses reap bountifully from their investments, but the robust friendship between the United States of America and Nigeria which was first cultivated in the 1960s by former President John Kennedy (USA) and former Prime Minister Tafawa Balewa (Nigeria) and sustained by successive administrations and leaderships in both countries, and the labor of these past leaders would not have been in vain.

The minister also seized the opportunity to enlighten his audience about the administration’s transformation agenda which he said envisions the mobilization and harnessing of private sector funds for infrastructure development through Public Private Partnerships (PPPs), as to supplement the increasingly limited resources of government.

Positive net present values

Also, Arc Onolememen put together for his audience, bankable projects with confirmed ability to establish revenue streams, deliver positive net present value (NPV), allocate risks and have sufficient scale for absorbing transaction costs, as well as a high probability of success and acceptability to institutional leaders and financiers.

Pressing the issue further home, he said: “Public Private Partnership funding mechanism requires the creation of a deregulated and competitive economic environment to attract foreign and local investments.

“The federal government of Nigeria has since created such an environment for investors, and this accounts for the success stories of some investors such as MTN of South Africa, and Dangote group of Nigeria, among others who dared all odds to invest massively in Nigeria about 10 years ago.”