FG spent N3.5trn on infrastructure in 3 years – Osinbajo
Vice President Yemi Osinbajo said Tuesday that the federal government has spent N3.5 trillion on infrastructure in the blast three years.
Osinbajo said this when he spoke at the first Nigeria-UK Economic Development Forum (EDF) at the Presidential Villa in Abuja.
“We have taken these challenges as opportunities and have made the extensive build-out of modern infrastructure (both hard and soft) as the main thrust of our administration.
“In the last three years, the government has allocated and disbursed over N3.5 trillion from the National budgets to infrastructure. The Presidential Enabling Business Environment Council (PEBEC) has made significant progress in reducing bottlenecks, eliminating redundancies and increasing transparency across government ministries, departments and agencies. There is undeniable evidence that the Buhari administration is repositioning the Nigerian economy for true growth and shared prosperity,” he said.
He said investor-interest is on the rise in the country based on the tracking of investment announcements which indicates a 37 per cent increase from 2017 to 2018.
“We have seen increased investor interest in Nigeria by the investment announcements that we track, with $90.9 billion of investment announcements in 2018, a 37 percent increase over the $66.4 billion tracked in 2017. We are interested in these announcements because we know that if we nurture them correctly, we can turn them into actual investments.
“There is also a steady rise in investor confidence, with an increase in the number of significant deal announcements. 18 days ago, Jumia, an online marketplace company that started in Nigeria, listed on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), the first African start-up to do so. It received such a warm investor response, that it has since appreciated over 125 percent,” he said.
