PANAPRESS
Panafrican News Agency
Central bank gov. identifies challenges of infrastructure finance in Africa
Lagos,Nigeria (PANA) - The Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Mr. Sanusi Lamido, has identified major challenges confronting infrastructure financing in Nigeria and Africa to include non-availability of long term funds, harsh economic environment, absence of risk sharing structure and lack of refinancing facility to boost liquidity for banks.
''It was the concern to reverse this ugly trend and put Nigeria on the path of development through infrastructure finance platform, that the conference was conceived,'' Lamido said at a conference on Infrastructure Financing organised by the apex bank in Abuja, the Nigerian capital, Monday.
The conference which drew participants from the financial sector, banking, development partners, the government and the private sectors has the theme: ''Infrastructure Financing in Nigeria: The way forward.''
While noting the symbiotic relationship between infrastructure and economic development, Sanusi decried the absence of synergy between the two due to poor performance of state-owned enterprises, huge finance gap, absence of maintenance culture, inadequate capacity building for stakeholders and policy reversal by governments.
He said part of the measures taken by the CBN to address the identified problems was to encourage commercial banks to lend to the real sector and also the approval of the amended prudential guidelines on loan loss provisioning as well as rules and regulations on margin lending.
Lamido said universal banking structure was being reversed in the country to give room for specialised banks that would be involved in infrastructure financing.
Also speaking at the conference, Finance Minister Olusegun Aganga praised the efforts and initiatives of CBN aimed at addressing the infrastructure gap.
Aganga, who represented President Goodluck Jonathan, said government would continue to create conducive environment to attract foreign investments in the area of infrastructure development.
''The present administration appreciates the role of infrastructure in economic development of the country. Concerted efforts are being made to reverse the decay,'' Aganga said.
He however added: ''Government sources are not enough to finance infrastructural development. As such, the options of Public-Private-Partnership (PPP) and Build Operate and Transfer (BOT) are being explored.''
-0- PANA SB/SEG 7Dec2010
''It was the concern to reverse this ugly trend and put Nigeria on the path of development through infrastructure finance platform, that the conference was conceived,'' Lamido said at a conference on Infrastructure Financing organised by the apex bank in Abuja, the Nigerian capital, Monday.
The conference which drew participants from the financial sector, banking, development partners, the government and the private sectors has the theme: ''Infrastructure Financing in Nigeria: The way forward.''
While noting the symbiotic relationship between infrastructure and economic development, Sanusi decried the absence of synergy between the two due to poor performance of state-owned enterprises, huge finance gap, absence of maintenance culture, inadequate capacity building for stakeholders and policy reversal by governments.
He said part of the measures taken by the CBN to address the identified problems was to encourage commercial banks to lend to the real sector and also the approval of the amended prudential guidelines on loan loss provisioning as well as rules and regulations on margin lending.
Lamido said universal banking structure was being reversed in the country to give room for specialised banks that would be involved in infrastructure financing.
Also speaking at the conference, Finance Minister Olusegun Aganga praised the efforts and initiatives of CBN aimed at addressing the infrastructure gap.
Aganga, who represented President Goodluck Jonathan, said government would continue to create conducive environment to attract foreign investments in the area of infrastructure development.
''The present administration appreciates the role of infrastructure in economic development of the country. Concerted efforts are being made to reverse the decay,'' Aganga said.
He however added: ''Government sources are not enough to finance infrastructural development. As such, the options of Public-Private-Partnership (PPP) and Build Operate and Transfer (BOT) are being explored.''
-0- PANA SB/SEG 7Dec2010
