The Federal Government is unlikely to start or complete any major big ticket infrastructure now or in the next five years despite the gaping infrastructure deficit, unless remedial action is taken, according to G&BJOURNAL findings.
Current economic challenges, fueled largely by the cruel collapse of global oil price means the opportunity has disappeared, at least for now until the future. The Ministry of Works has already indicated it’s restrained and will only concentrate on “inconsequential projects”, putting further at risk the comprehensive report put together six years ago by the Africa Development Bank Group (ADB) at the request of the Federal Government for an action plan on the country’s infrastructure requirements across sectors.
According to the ADB then, the cost of developing the proposed infrastructure program with the suggested action plans in the decade ahead is estimated at US$350 billion (at 2010 constant prices).
“This total includes US$15 billion for capacity building and technical studies required, thus, about US$285 billion for the rehabilitation and expansion of the actual infrastructure of the country.”
The document has since been gathering dust on the shelf in Aso Rock, the office of the president of the federal republic, forgotten or simply ignored despite the huge cost paid to prepare the plan.
All government agencies had fallen short of expectations and responded unintelligently to suggestions to utilise prudently appropriated expenditure for infrastructure, with almost all agencies and departments implementing less than 0.5 percent of projects in the past 5 years since the ADB report.
The consequence of this is the over 12,000 projects abandoned across the country in the past two decades including the high-value Ajaokuta Steel project and more recently, the second Niger bridge.
Compounding the infrastructure misery is the absence of the skills to do adequate stress test to properly evaluate their capacity to deliver projects on budget and on time as well as the ability to identify and ensure focus on high-priority project.
The general consensus, which was equally amplified in the ADB report, is that investments in infrastructure are critical to advances in all sectors of the economy including agriculture, which is one of the key pillars of the Nigerian economy, and human development, including the delivery of health and education services to the poor.
“The activities involved in Infrastructure sector upgrades can be a stimulus for growth and creation of productive employment,” the report noted.
Last week one of the most derided development agencies in the country, the Niger Delta Development Agency, NDDC, got a prod by governors of Nigeria’s oil producing States to take the bull by the horn on big ticket investment on infrastructure to see if the country can roll back the missed opportunities. The agency was set up to intervene and bridge the development gaps in the Niger Delta region, as well as renew the sustainable livelihoods of the people-focusing mostly on infrastructure projects.
Up until now, all of the agency’s work had been suspiciously viewed, with recurring report of graft and deceit about it’s project claims.
Most analysts fear the agency will continue on it’s deceitful path unless the new head appointed my President Muhammadu Buhari, Ibim Semenitari, is given the necessary political backings to move the agency forward.
Meanwhile, the growth performance of Nigeria’s non-oil economy continues to underperform largely due to infrastructure deficits. Growth has been stuck in the below 3 percent window for over 3 decades, according to sources most stunted by policy conflicts, macroeconomic volatility and lack of progress in reforms, the type that will allow private sector full involvement in the development process.
