Backbone Infrastructure Nigeria Limited, a multinational company, has announced its intention to invest $172 billion in the development of various infrastructure sectors in the country.
The investment, which will leverage alternative financing options, will be allocated over the next 22 years to the mineral resources, energy, agriculture, housing and transport sectors, the company said in a statement on Saturday.
President Bola Tinubu’s administration has reiterated its commitment to increasing foreign direct investment inflows into the country while also pushing for alternative financing for the construction of critical infrastructure projects.
Last year, Industry, Trade and Investment Minister Doris Aniete said the government had secured $30 billion in loans from foreign investors.
Despite this amount, Nigeria still needs investment to reduce its infrastructure gap, which according to the implementation of the National Comprehensive Master Plan, will require $3 trillion over 30 years.
The group’s chief executive officer, Henry Owonka, said the company was working with foreign partners to seek approval for a joint venture model to facilitate their investment plans in the country.
Owonka stressed that the company intends to align with the infrastructure plans of the current administration, stressing that a sustained inflow of investment such as the one proposed by the company is preferable to isolated investments by other investors, especially in the mining sector.
“What we are asking for is an investment plan, not a sovereign guarantee that would deplete foreign exchange reserves, but an innovative approach that uses the country’s abundant natural resources as collateral. The president has verbally approved our demands,” he said.
“The company is interested in investing in different products. We are seeking approval for a joint venture model so that we can attract more investors, not only from within the country but also from abroad. A joint venture with the government is better than just being issued land and that is what we are looking for.”
Stating plans for the mining sector, the CEO noted that the company is ready to invest $4 billion and said, “Exploration of mineral resources requires data and this is one of the proposals we have put forward. This will allow us to provide our expertise so the government can get accurate data and explore for those minerals. This partnership will help the government in its plans to reduce its dependence on crude oil. This is a $172 billion investment plan so we are doing this across all ministries and agencies.”
Speaking at the Ministry of Solid Mineral Development, Chief Operating Officer Clement Kwegile Aful explained that the investment drive is aimed at narrowing the huge infrastructure gap in the country.
“The current administration is looking to make several investments through the private sector to reduce the infrastructure gap. BINL has come together as a team to help the government achieve this task without state guarantees.”
“We want to contribute to resolving the energy deficit through the use of renewable energy. That’s why one of our subsidiaries is focused on renewable energy and how to resolve it. We plan to introduce innovative financing methods through finance engineering to raise funds that will help resolve the infrastructure deficit.”
The statement further said, “Mineral exploration is one of the areas that the government wants to use to generate alternative sources of revenue from oil and is one of the strong areas that we want to focus on. Mineral exploration will bring in a different form of revenue.”
“It’s going to take a lot of money to make this happen, so we’re going to invest $172 billion over the next ’22-’23. And if you annualize that, that’s $6 billion invested each year of the many numbers the president is asking for.”
“We have divided the project into phases. The first phase will be the one that will have the biggest impact on the Nigerian landscape. So we are looking at hospitals, renewable energy, mineral exploration and export because that is where we have a lot of concern. We are also looking at some deep sea ports,” he added.
