Against the backdrop of continued economic growth in the region, the need for enabling infrastructure is clearly evident. Although requirements vary from country to country, a huge gap currently exists across key infrastructure areas such as Power, Transport, Water and Healthcare both within and across the countries in the region.
Meanwhile, at the 29th Annual Conference of the Nigerian Economic Summit, President Bola Tinubu sought the cooperation and intervention of Nigeria's private sector and specifically the capital market, toward the funding of Nigeria's $3 trillion infrastructure gap, which he said should not require 300 years to cover as propounded in some texts but 10 years.
He noted that infrastructural deficits are better financed from inside, not through foreign borrowing alone, saying that the job of the capital market in Nigeria is therefore cut out for it and this extends to West Africa, and Africa at large. Lagos State Governor, Mr. Babajide Sanwo-Olu said that"across our sub region, modern infrastructures such as roads, rails, ports, fibre optics, housing, power and several others are hugely inadequate. These perennial inadequacies have hindered the economic growth of our nations and its people.