By Yemisi Izuora-Lagos
The Federal Government would require to spend about $113 billion in the next six years for the development of oil and gas, power and transport sectors which are considers very critical sectors of the economy.
Director General of Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE), Mr. Benjamin Dikki who gave this figure in a paper he presented at the Annual General Meeting of Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN) entitled, “Making Nigeria Work: A Dialogue Between the Real Sector and the Reformer.” explained that to modernise the Nigerian transport system, investments of about $33 billion would be required in six years for road and rail development to undertake rehabilitation and modernisation of the Nigerian Railway and the construction of new road networks across the country.
He explained that in the next six years, Nigeria would require about $18 – $20 billion of investment in the power sector, adding that the current reforms in the sector has enabled the private sector to invest in the rehabilitation of existing infrastructure and in new projects.
Dikki noted that within the same period, the nation would require about $60 billion investments in oil and gas to unleash the potentials in the sector.
He said government was not in a position to finance all the investment requirements, thus the private sector needs to participate in investing in the various sectors of oil and gas, roads, railways, inland waterways and other sectors.
“It is in order to attract these needed private sector investments that government, through the transformation agenda, is finetuning policies, legal and regulatory frameworks to give confidence to the private sector to invest,” he said.
He emphasised that the enactment of the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB) and transport bills midwifed by BPE would be critical. He added that without the passage of the bills, the country is estimated to be losing, for example, an additional revenue of about $287 million in accruals to government from the three production sharing contracts every month if the PIB is not passed.
On the impact of reform and privatisation on the nation’s economy, the Director General said the BPE has concluded reforms in eight sectors of the economy namely telecommunications, power, banking and finance, marine, mining, industrial, steel, oil and gas, government has also, so far, privatised 123 enterprises including the recently concluded Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN) successor companies and realised over N564.3 billion.
Dikki further noted that the reform of the telecommunications and banking sectors remain so far the most successful in terms of their impact on the Nigerian economy, stressing that the nation’s tele-density has been raised from about 450,000 telephone lines in 2001 to over 134.5 million as at September 2014.