FG to establish N4.98tn infrastructure fund —Adeosun

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The Federal Government plans to set up a $25bn (N4.98tn) fund dedicated to infrastructure investments, the Minister of Finance, Mrs. Kemi Adeosun, has said.

She said this on Thursday in Lagos during the inauguration of the Capital Market Master Plan Implementation Council, the National Investor Protection Fund and launch of the Corporate Governance Scorecard by the Securities and Exchange Commission.

According to Adeosun, who was represented at the event by the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Finance, Dr. Mahmoud Isa-Dutse, the decision to set up the fund for infrastructure is in recognition of the critical role of the capital market to the kind of economy the present administration intends to develop for Nigeria.

She said, “In the current environment of significant revenue squeeze and other budgetary constraints, these investments will clearly not come from government coffers alone.

“We believe this is where the capital market can really make itself relevant by stepping in to close the funding gap. Government is already looking to set up a $25bn fund wholly dedicated to infrastructure investments.”

The minister challenged the capital market community too come up with other innovative ways of mobilising the funds needed to address the country’s infrastructure challenge.

She added that an efficient and vibrant capital market was an indispensable feature of any modern economy, supplying affordable medium to long-term capital needed for growth.

This, Adeosun explained, was because capital markets do facilitate the mobilisation of savings, accelerate capital formation, provide investment avenues and enhance efficient allocation of capital to growth sectors.

The minister explained, “Nigeria needs and deserves a capital market that is characterised by high levels of liquidity, depth, breadth and sophistication to enable rapid socio-economic development.

“Going through the (capital market) master plan, it is heart-warming to note that this is the type of capital market you envision for our country, and indeed, we desperately need such a market to emerge in order to tackle Nigeria’s biggest challenges of huge infrastructure deficit and unacceptable level of unemployment.”

Adeosun, however, decried the fact that less than three per cent of Nigerians were investing in the capital market and only 0.2 per cent of the population were putting their money in mutual funds.

“Imagine the kind of savings to be mobilised, the liquidity to be injected and the sophistication to be developed if we improve these numbers by bringing millions more Nigerians to invest in the capital market,” she observed.

According to her, if the master plan is properly implemented, the country’s capital market will become Africa’s most efficient and globally competitive market, facilitating Nigeria’s emergence as a top 20 global economy.

Source: Punch