With inflation hovering around 17.33 per cent as unemployment stands at over 33.3 per cent while rising debt poses grave dangers, but with improvement in infrastructure, the country may improve productivity and thereby improve quality of life. The development could in turn address growing poverty in the country.
He noted that with several infrastructure initiatives already being conceptualised within various sectors, especially the gas infrastructure fund embedded within the newly signed PIA, the host community development fund also within the PIA, the N15 trillion infrastructure fund should be administered to complement and align with the plans and projects.
Although stakeholders stressed the need for massive investment in infrastructure, noting that the efforts but the CBN remained laudable, they insisted that there was need for proper and sustainable plans that would lead to projected goals. “Hitherto, some reliance had been placed on other sovereigns such as China, international financial institutions such as the World Bank, ADB, etc. But there is a limit to what Nigeria can attract from these countries and institutions because of the not too friendly conditionalities usually imposed on developing countries like Nigeria.
Ajibola urged the apex bank to introduce a framework for monitoring performance, which must be efficient and effective, adding that there must be a shift from seeing intervention funds as free public funds, adding that such mentality must be tackled head long if the infrastructural fund would achieve the desired goals.