The Federal Government’s plan to raise a $25 billion Infrastructural Fund from the global community and establish long term bankable projects is gaining traction, Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, said on Tuesday in Abuja.
“We have seen considerable, favourable interests from some sovereign wealth funds and other nations,” the VP told a delegation of the Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry that paid him a courtesy in his office.
Explaining the idea of the Fund to the delegation, Osinbajo said the Nigeria Sovereign Investment Authority which manages the country’s Sovereign Wealth Fund is leading the project, adding that the Infrastructural Fund would create opportunity for commercial partners to participate in the building of the nation’s infrastructure, alongside the Federal Government. This would be done through the establishment of bankable projects that involve such commercial partners.
According to a statement by the Senior Special Adviser to the Vice President, Laolu Akande, the VP disclosed that the China-Exim Bank has agreed to finance the railway projects linking Lagos to Kano and Lagos to Calabar.
Akande said, “We expect these will generate some economic activities and create jobs.”
The delegation of the Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry was led by Nike Akande who declared the support of the Chamber for the Federal Government’s fight against corruption and acknowledged that in the current economic situation that the Buhari presidency is having to deal with “there are no easy choices.”
