FG begins assessment of abandoned projects

The Ministry of Budget and National Planning says it has begun the assessment of abandoned projects in the country to find ways of deriving maximum benefits from them.
The Director of Administration in the ministry, Christian Ezeilo, told the News Agency of Nigeria in Abuja that all Ministries, Departments and Agencies had been directed to do same.
Ezeilo said: “If you look at what is going on, every MDA has been asked to come up with the list of all abandoned projects so that we can look at them critically.
“We need to look at them critically and see the ones that the private sector can help the government to complete and those that the government can also complete.’’
According to him, some of the projects have lasted for years and the government will need to complete them.
Ezeilo, however, said that the ministry would also partner with the private sector to develop some infrastructure in the country.
The director said the ministry had built the capacity of staff in some key MDAs on how to package bankable infrastructure Public Private Partnership projects.
He listed some of the heavy infrastructure MDAs as Works, Aviation and Transport, Water Resources.
He said: “We want to bring Nigeria’s infrastructure to that of South Africa.
“Nigeria’s infrastructure is estimated to be only 20-25 per cent in 2013, compared to South Africa’s 87 per cent.
“This necessitated the formulation of the National Integrated Infrastructure Master Plan, a 30-year plan aimed at increasing infrastructure stock to 70 per cent of Gross Domestic Product by 2043.”
According to him, the only way to implement the plan is to partner with the private sector.
NAN reports that the NIIMP stipulates that Nigeria will need an average of 25 billion dollars per annually for the next five years to sustain a robust economic growth.
NIIMP further projects that, to fund the infrastructure needs of the growing economy over the 30 years, the country would need to spend above three trillion dollars to close its infrastructure in core asset classes.