By Emma Ujah,    Abuja Bureau Chief

ABUJA- Governor of Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, Mallam Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, has called for the establishment of an Infrastructure Bank to provide funds for the rapid development of infrastructural facilities across the country.

He spoke at the third Infrastructure Concession Regulatory Commission, ICRC, Public-Private Partnership, PPP, Stakeholders Forum in Abuja, yesterday.

He said: “Nigeria could pursue such a model, where a new government-owned bank is created that can raise tax-free bonds to fund projects.

“Banks could be financed from funds recovered from petrol subsidy removal, and equipped with professional and qualified management recruited globally. Funding could be by way of non-callable tier-2 capital, returning a decent rate to the Ministry of Finance.

“In terms of lending, the proposed bank could lend to projects based on a selection criteria with a moratorium of up to seven years at single digit interest rates repayable over 20-30 years.

“The government would earn money from the interest and share of the PPP arrangements. The operating and management fees, consultancy and project management, as well as loan loss provisioning could be covered by a minimal yet competitive spread.”

If established, Mallam Sanusi suggested that the bank should devote at least 70 percent of the bank’s portfolio to infrastructure facilities such as seaports, airports, railways, highways and power plants, while devoting the remaining 30 percent would be assigned to fund the acquisition of ships, trains and aircraft.

According to the apex bank boss, Nigerian economy requires a specific attention to infrastructure if the nation’s potentials are to be realised in record time, as envisaged by the Federal Government.

Mallam Sanusi also pointed out that the mandate of the Bank of Industry, BoI, can be expanded to provide such services after higher capitalisation, enabled by the Federal Government.

He regretted that Nigerians suffer power outages amounting to about 320 annually with national annual generator fuelling cost put at over $13 billion.