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From Aidoghie Paulinus, Abuja
Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Zainab Shamsuna Ahmed, has said the Federal Government would spend estimated N3.53 trillion on infrastructure and human capital development in 2022.
She stated this during a town hall meeting organised by the Ministry of Information and Culture on the achievements of the Federal Government in infrastructure development in Abuja, yesterday.
The minister added that Nigeria’s economy and population remained the largest in Africa with over $400 billion in gross domestic product and over 200 million people.
She said the huge and growing population offered both an economic challenge and opportunity in the light of constrained revenue proceeds brought on by several multi-dimensional factors, including the global pandemic and its impact on the domestic economy.
Ahmed also said against the backdrop of the challenges, the current administration has successfully implemented a range of infrastructure programmes that have had a positive impact on the lives and livelihoods of the citizenry.
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She reiterated that quality infrastructure is important, not only to engender and accelerate economic growth, but also to ensure and enhance inclusive growth for all within a nation space.
Ahmed recalled that the Road Infrastructure Development and Refurbishment Investment Tax Credit Scheme (RITCS) was launched in 2019 to leverage private sector capital and expertise to construct, repair and maintain critical road infrastructure in key economic corridors and industrial clusters in Nigeria. She stated that the RITCS scheme was designed to complement and ameliorate the burden of funding significant capital outlays on road projects by the Federal Government.
Ahmed said as a model, the RITCS adopted the use of tax expenditures, via tax credits, to finance the construction of critical road and bridge infrastructure projects, while utilising an innovative PPP mechanism that is aimed at the incentivisation of private sector participation and capital investments.
“The Scheme commenced in 2019, with the president’s approval of 19 Road Projects covering 769.16 km and located in 11 states across the six geopolitical zones. Subsequently, construction commenced with the reconstruction of the Apapa-Oshodi-Oworonshoki-Ojota Road in Lagos State (34 km), re-construction of Obajana-Kabba road (43km) in Kogi State – both invested in and undertaken by Dangote Industries Limited, while the Nigerian Liquefied Natural Gas (NLNG) Limited undertook the construction of the Bodo-Bonny road and the bridges across the Opobo channel in Rivers state (40 km).
“Since the inception of the RITCS, the president has approved 14 additional roads, bringing the total to thirty-three (33) Road Projects, covering a total length of 1,564.95 km as of 2021. These additional projects are in 19 States across the six (6) geo-political zones in the country. In the last three years (2019 – 2021), about N78 billion worth of tax credits have been issued to investors under the RITCS. In addition, the NNPC is to finance the construction of 21 roads across the country.”
On the Nigerian Sovereign Investment Authority (NSIA) Infrastructure Development Projects (NIF), Ahmed disclosed that over a period of seven years (2015 – 2021), the government invested and completed 13 projects across seven key sectors, including healthcare, education, agriculture, financial services, and housing.
