Backbone Infrastructure Nigeria Limited, a multinational corporation, declared its plan to invest $172 billion to support the growth of the nation’s infrastructure.
According to a business statement on Saturday, this investment—which will be made via alternative financing options—will be distributed over the course of the next 22 years across the energy, housing, transportation, agriculture, and mineral resources sectors.
President Bola Tinubu’s administration has made it clear that it is committed to increasing foreign direct investment into the nation and supporting alternative finance sources for the development of vital infrastructure projects.
Foreign investors have committed to providing the country with $30 billion, according to a statement made by Doris Aniete, Minister of Industry, Trade, and Investment, last year.
Despite this, Nigeria still needs to invest $3 trillion over the course of 30 years to close the infrastructure gap, as per the National Integrated Master Plan’s execution.
Henry Owonka, the group’s chief executive officer, stated that in order to expedite its intended investment in the nation, the company is requesting clearance for a joint venture model with its overseas partners.
Owonka underlined that the company plans to support the infrastructure plan of the current administration, emphasising that a steady stream of investment—as suggested by the company—is better than sporadic investments by other investors, particularly in the mining industry.
He said, “What we are looking for is for us to structure our program of investment, we are not looking for a sovereign guarantee which will deplete the foreign reserves but innovative ways to collateralize those natural resources that the country has in abundance. The president has verbally approved our request.
“The company expressed its interest in investing in the range of commodities. We are seeking approval for a joint venture model because in that way we can draw more investors not only in the country but also outside the country. Because when you have a joint venture with the government, it’s better and that’s what we are seeking rather than for them to just issue land to us.”
The CEO stating plans for the mining sector noted that the company is ready to invest $4bn, “to explore mineral resources but we need data and that is also one of the offers we proposed so that we can bring in our expertise and help the government obtain accurate data and then we can explore those minerals. This partnership will help the government plan to reduce dependence on crude oil. We also doing this across all the ministries because it’s a $172bn investment drive.”
The goal of the investment drive, according to Chief Operations Officer Clement Kwegyir-Afful, is to close the enormous infrastructure deficit in the nation during a presentation at the Ministry of Solid Minerals Development.
“The current administration is looking for several investments to come in through the private sector to reduce the infrastructure gap. The BINL have come together as a team to support the government achieve this mandate without any sovereign guarantee.
“We want to help address the energy gap through the use of renewables, so one of our subsidiaries focuses on renewable and how we can address that. We are going to bring in innovative ways of funding through financier engineering to raise funds that would address the infrastructure gap.”
Continuing, the statement read, “Minerals exploration is one area the government want to use to create another source of revenue shifting from oil and that is one strong area that we want to focus on. It will raise a different form of revenue.
“To do this will require a significant amount of money, so over the next 22 to 23 years, we are looking to invest $172bn dollars. If you break this down yearly, that works to $6bn every year in investment out of the numerous numbers the president is looking for.
“We have grouped our project into phases; the first one will be the ones that have the most impact on Nigeria’s landscape, so we are looking at hospitals, renewable energies, mineral exploration and exportation because that is where we have huge concerns and also some of the deep sea ports,” he added.
