The Vice President, Prof Yemi Osinbajo has revealed that the Federal Government is planning to set up a $25 billion infrastructure fund that will benefit from both public and private sector funding sources.
He made this known in an interview with Bloomberg.
He said: “We are looking at a $25 billion infrastructure fund. That is the size of the fund we are looking at.
“I want to set up a fund, an infrastructure fund, which will benefit from both public sources, which is government sources, and concessionary funding, a mix of funds, and then of course private sector funds.
“A lot of those projects will be bankable projects, because we’re looking at projects that will interest private sector investors as well. But they are strategic for us.”
The vice president also said that government was looking at quite substantial private sector input, especially in agriculture, because agricultural sector is possibly the second largest contributor to Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
Through this, he added, millions of farmers will be employed “so we get some leverage with job creation, which is a major policy objective as well.”
Against the backdrop of fears being expressed in certain quarters that the nation’s economy may be heading for a recession, Osinbajo said the way out is to spend rather than to cut back on spending.
According to him, spending on ways of diversifying and also on infrastructure will help the economy.
“We are going to be investing quite massively on infrastructure, especially power, roads and rail, and of course we are going to be investing in agriculture as well,” he stated.
On the decline in oil prices, he said that the central bank had to produce some short-term foreign exchange controls because largely the oil prices have plummeted and that it has been reasonably successful in the short term.