President Bola Tinubu on Monday approved the Renewed Hope Infrastructure Development Fund to bridge the country’s $25bn per annum infrastructure funding gap.
The new initiative will be domiciled in the Presidency, according to the Minister of Information and National Orientation, Mohammed Idris, who spoke to journalists after Monday’s Federal Executive Council meeting at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.
Idris said the fund became necessary given Nigeria’s current infrastructure gap, requiring $878bn to bridge between 2016 and 2040.
He noted that there is a study reporting that Nigeria will require about $878bn between 2016 and 2040 to bridge its infrastructural deficit.
Giving further details about the new development, the Chairman of the Federal Inland Revenue Service, FIRS, Zacch Adedeji, said the fund would focus on road, rail, agriculture, ports and aviation.
He explained that the fund will be launched only after the Minister of Budget and Economic Planning, Abubakar Bagudu, prepares a supplementary budget to accommodate the new spending.
A statement signed by the Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Ajuri Ngelale, stated the fund would be invested in critical national projects that would, among other things, promote growth, enhance local value-addition, create employment opportunities, and stimulate technological innovation and exports