The Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF) Boss Mustapha, says the Federal Government is committed to addressing the country’s challenges on infrastructure development.
Mustapha said this on Thursday in Abuja at a Townhall Meeting organized by a group called the Business Hallmark Public Policy Forum with the theme, `Nigeria’s Infrastructure Revolution: Road to a new future.’
He said that the meeting was dedicated to an aspect of development that requires effective collaboration between the public and the private sectors for the development of the country.
“It is important that we appreciate where we are coming from, where we stand, what we need to do to get to our desired destination and what government is doing to facilitate reaching the destination.
“At inception in May 2015 the present administration was faced with challenges indicated by a poor infrastructure stock that was estimated at 35 per cent of GDP.
“This was grossly inadequate for a country that was in dire need of exclusive growth, and socio-economic development was below the international bench mark of 70 per cent already achieved by some emerging markets like Indonesia and Poland,’’ he added.
He further said that to redress the challenges, the federal government had revised the 23 years 2023-2043 National Integrated Infrastructural Plan with consistent micro economy framework and realistic investment infrastructure parts.
He stressed that government needed to explore other financing options to meet its competing demands with a focus on a public-private partnership that allowed the private sector to finance infrastructure development.
John Odigie-Oyegun, the Chairman of the meeting, said the objective of the meeting was to inform the public and receive feedback on government infrastructural development activities.
According to him, after six years of service in the tenure of eight years, it was necessary to review achievements and update the populace in terms of the impact of government activities.
He said that any empirical observer would say that the performance of the government had been mixed on infrastructure development and programmes.
Also, Mr Marc Wabara, who was the chief host of the event, said that the meeting was an avenue for intellectuals to discuss national engagement over government policies toward enhancing public good and national development.
He said the objective was informed by the understanding and conviction that government does not always have all the solutions to every challenge and to ensure that public policies meet the basic standard of giving value to the society.
He further said that as an independent public policy advocacy group, it was their concern that in spite of the present challenges, the nation undergoes a major infrastructure transformation.
He added that social and economic infrastructure was the foundation of national development and the social and economic challenges of today derived basically from the fact that over the years there has been the absence of infrastructure in the country.
The Minister of Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola and his Water Resources counterpart, Suleiman Adamu, also graced the event. (NAN)