- Nigeria’s Infrastructure Stock Hits 35 Percent, Says Expert
The value of Nigeria’s total infrastructure stock, comprising road, rail, power, airports, water, telecoms and seaports, has been estimated at 35 percent of the country’s gross domestic product (GDP).
This figure is believed to be very small when compared to Nigeria’s peer in the emerging market, whose average stands at 70 per cent. This, stakeholders say, makes it imperative for an urgent and critical assessment of the infrastructural development in the country.
Global Properties Partners (GPP) Managing Director/CEO, Mr. Emmanuel Odemayowa, observed that the issue of infrastructure development could not be overemphasised until it was gotten right.
According to Odemayowa, this is the basis for the second GPP’s National Infrastructure Summit slated for next November in Abuja.
He explained that the summit will “focus exclusively on creating avenues that generate sustainable income and wealth through global partnerships” as well as serve as “a platform for the engagement of global institutional investors for infrastructure development.”
Odemayowa disclosed that the summit would build on its first edition held in Lagos last year, where several critical issues on infrastructure financing and the creation of an enabling environment for infrastructure development in the country were discussed extensively.
The summit, he further assured, would attract leading international and Nigerian professionals from across the globe as well as top government functionaries and policy makers.
“The organisation of this year’s event in Abuja was to make for a more robust and meaningful exchange of ideas between the public and private sector on the way forward for this sector in the country,” he said.
The GPP chief further said the summit was part of the company’s efforts to promote global best practice in the infrastructure sector in the country, given Nigeria’s vast economic potentials.
Among the highlights planned for this year’s event will be the first Infrastructure Award Night in the country, where private and public sector professionals as well as institutions that have contributed significantly to infrastructure development in the country will be recognised and honoured.
GPP a consortium of firms with diverse interests in real estate and infrastructure development.
