Business
Dangote, Surveyors To Discuss Infrastructure Investment
Investment in infrastruc
ture and its growth potential would form the basis of a roundtable discussion sponsored by the Dangote Group and organised by the Nigerian Institute of Quantity Surveyors (NIQS).
The meeting with the theme, ‘The Future of PPPs in Nigeria: Aligning Government Policy with Private Sector Aspirations’, will be the peak of the NIQS’s 25th Biennial Conference, which will focus on “Nigeria’s Quest for Investment and Growth: Releasing the Potential of Infrastructure Public Private Partnerships.”
According to a statement by the NIQS, the Chairman of the Dangote Group, Alhaji Aliko Dangote, will be the chairperson while the summary of the deliberation will be presented to the Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister for the Economy, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala.
The NIQS President, Mr. Agele Alufohai, said as cost economists to the construction industry, members of the NIQS had an interest in the pace at which infrastructure was being supplied to the national economy.
He said the Federal Government would not be able to finance the $2.9 trillion that the country needed for the wide infrastructure gap plaguing the economy.
“Government, the private sector, and key social groups need to come together and agree on standards for Private Public Partnerships in Nigeria so that Nigeria can attract some of the S220bn that private investors commit to infrastructure globally every year,” he said.
Alufohai said he was optimistic that the country would eventually get its PPPs framework right, adding that the reforms which had been taken for granted were either first opposed or took a while to be implemented appropriately by the government.
According to him, the Institute’s 2013 conference on PPP is meant to enrich the dialogue on the subject.