In a historic move, Nigeria has solidified a groundbreaking multi-billion dollar agreement with Invest India, a prominent Indian investment agency. The accord, inked on September 6, sets out to fortify Nigeria's infrastructure projects across various sectors, including power, railways, warehousing, and ports. The ultimate aim is to drive Nigeria's agricultural and manufacturing industries towards industrialization and reduce reliance on imports. During an interview conducted in India, Lazarus Angbazo, the CEO of Infrastructure Corporation of Nigeria Limited (InfraCorp), the government-backed infrastructure vehicle, expressed his optimism about the agreement's potential.
Angbazo highlighted the pivotal role of industrializing Nigeria's agricultural sector to enhance productivity, as agriculture presently contributes to approximately 40% of the nation's economy. He stressed that commencing with this sector would yield the most impactful outcomes. Nigeria, with a population exceeding 200 million people, has actively sought to address its infrastructure deficit and stimulate economic growth by entering into a series of deals with India.
To achieve their ambitious goals, Nigeria requires a staggering $3 trillion over the course of 30 years, as underscored by Angbazo. The CEO further disclosed that the country faces an annual infrastructure financing gap of approximately $125 billion, while its current annual expenditure stands at an estimated $10 billion. In response to this pressing need, InfraCorp was established as a government-backed infrastructure investment vehicle jointly owned by the Central Bank of Nigeria, Africa Finance Corporation (AFC), and Nigeria Sovereign Investment Authority. The agency primarily focuses on transportation and logistics, initially planning a potential investment of up to N163 billion ($212 million).
The partnership between Nigeria and Invest India is expected to pave the way for expanding ports in Nigeria, enabling the processing of a significantly higher number of shipping containers. Angbazo emphasized that, given the country's size, Nigeria should ideally possess a container processing capacity of around 50 million containers, a sharp contrast to its current capacity of merely four million containers. However, Angbazo did not disclose the financial specifics of the deal.
