- By Femi Alabi.
Former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar has said that he is excited about the 188MW Geometric Power Plant in Abuja saying that he Nigerian Electricity Supply Industry (NESI) has over the years suffered from inadequate investments, failure of generation, transmission, and distribution infrastructure.
Atiku on his X handle stated that Nigeria’s core infrastructure stock is very low, estimated at 35-40 percent of GDP, below the international benchmark of 70 percent and below South Africa 87 percent, Indonesia 70 percent, China 76 and India 58 percent.
He added that the finances required to bridge Nigeria’s infrastructure gap are in the region of US$100 billion per annum – over the next 30 years.
Atiku pointed out that Nigeria does not have the resources to provide all of its infrastructure needs without sacrificing investments in education, health, and other social services. It should be remembered that Nigeria struggles to budget no more than US$30 billion annually.
He said, “For these reasons, I have been an ardent advocate of private sector presence in Nigeria. I have all along advocated for a private sector friendly business environment so we could leverage its enormous resources, including finance, skills, and technology.
“I doubt if the Abia state government would have been able to execute this mega project with the resources at its disposal.
“My policy document outlines how Nigeria could prioritize investments to increase the stock and improve the quality of economic and social infrastructure across the country.
“We believe that narrowing the enormous gap that exists between the demand and supply of key infrastructure facilities in Nigeria is key to improving the competitiveness of our businesses, opening new economic and entrepreneurial opportunities, and promoting enterprise growth.
The former Vice President commended and appreciate the efforts of Prof Barth Nnaji and his team to deliver on this project despite all the political and business environment obstacles.