By Prince Okafor

The Vice President of Nigeria, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo (SAN) has given his support to the forthcoming 2015 Nigeria Infrastructure Public Private Partnership Summit billed for the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja in the last quarter of this year.

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The Vice President made this known when the Summit Planning Team paid him a courtesy visit at the Presidential Villa.

The team was led by A.B Mahmoud (SAN), Managing Partner Dikko & Mahmoud, a full service law firm. Also in attendance was Gori Olusina

Daniel from Adams & Moore, a U.K-based global professional advisory firm and Ibrahim Adamu Abdullahi from Dikko & Mahmoud.

The Vice President, while acknowledging the key role the organised private sector must play in addressing Nigeria’s infrastructure deficit, welcomed the initiative and pledged his support and participation. The Summit Planning Team was subsequently tasked with creating sector-specific reviews and roadmaps in the four key areas of focus – Power, Transport, Health and Education in collaboration with key eco-system players leading up to the summit

It will be recalled that in his opening address at the just concluded Nigerian Bar Association 55th Annual General Conference in Abuja, President Muhammadu Buhari decried the huge infrastructural deficit the country is grappling with and highlighted the need for strategic “public private partnerships” in the “quest for enhanced capital and expertise”.

His words, “We also have a huge infrastructure deficit for which we require foreign capital and expertise to supplement whatever resources we can marshal at home. In essence, increased engagement with the outside world is called for as we seek public private partnerships in our quest for enhanced capital and expertise. This is the way of the new world for all countries in the 21st  Century.”

In a recent report, the Institute of Appraisers and Cost Engineers, (IA&CE) disclosed that the draft National Integrated Infrastructure Master Plan would require an estimated amount of over $2.9 trillion in investments over the next 30 years to address Nigeria’s infrastructure deficit. This corresponds to an annual average of $25billion over the next four years – about four times the federal government’s total allocation to capital projects in the 2014 budget.

Speaking on the objectives of the Summit, Gori Olusina Daniel, partner and Africa Regional Director at Adams & Moore, said that following participation by key members of the Summit Planning team at the APC Policy Forum held in July 2015 that the Summit closely aligns with the Federal Government’s stated priority areas of Power, Health, Transport and Education, and is timed to leverage significant interest from the organised private sector in driving forward progress in each of these critical areas.

“This summit is about charting the way forward in four critical sectors and establishing a private sector led community of practice, working in collaboration with government across all levels that will ensure the successful implementation of these roadmaps,” he said.