Research experts have estimated that Nigeria has an infrastructure gap of $3 trillion, which according to them is about six times the size of the country’s annual Gross Domestic Product (GDP). Senior lecturer at Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, Prof. Muhammed Usman, in a virtual presentation yesterday, said between 2009 and 2013, Nigeria invested a paltry $664 annually in infrastructure, which represents three per cent of its GDP, compared with an average investment of $3.060 or five per cent of the GDP in developed countries.
Usman noted that this had widened the country’s infrastructure gap posing a major impediment to economic growth.
He noted that this “poses a major funding challenge in the face of the current fiscal imbalances. Besides, the country is currently grappling with the hydra headed problems of inflation (17.33%), unemployment (33.3%) and rising debt.
“Infrastructural development plays a pivotal role in enhancing economic growth, improving living standards, reducing poverty, and contributing to environmental sustainability.”
He said with rapid growth of the country’s population, the demand for infrastructure was outpacing its supply, adding that the country’s weak infrastructures were exposed in the wake of the global pandemic in 2020.
Earlier, Chief Executive Officer of the Nigerian Economic Summit Group, (NESG), Mr. Laoye Jaiyeola, who chaired the meeting, noted that infrastructure was a major hindrance to the country’s competitive development.
Jaiyeola said one of the challenges facing the private sector was infrastructure, adding that the country needs funds annually to finance infrastructure if it must get out of the rocks.
He stated, “I have been involved in a lot of surveys that look at the competitiveness of nations, and each time we look at our ranking around where we are in the world competitiveness index of doing business, one thing that stands out is the poor level of our infrastructure, and the extent to which it has hindered us from significant development locally.
“So this thematic group comes in at a time when all of us are looking at how to ensure that we do significant backward integration; how can we ensure that we make the environment very competitive enough that not only do we meet the needs of our people locally, but good enough for the outside market that we can export.
