Government cannot fund all public infrastructure, says Osinbajo

Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo has called for public private partnership (PPP) and private capital investment in the country, saying the “federal government cannot fund all public infrastructure.”

Osinbajo was speaking on Friday when he inaugurated the Port Harcourt Dockyard liquid waste treatment plant in Rivers.

In a statement by Laolu Akande, his spokesman, Osinbajo stressed that a successful PPP leadership in major aspects of the economy and encouraging private capital investment was more strategic and important.

“Government cannot fund all public infrastructure,” he said.

“You are all aware of our Ease of Doing Business agenda, with the goal of making Nigeria one of the easiest and most attractive places to trade and invest in the shortest possible time.

“We are well on our way there.”

He commended African Circle Pollution Management Limited, the company that built the plant, for being wholly indigenous.

“I am told that the company has invested more than 8 million dollars in this fully automated liquid waste treatment plant; in fact, that all its investment so far here in Nigeria it is somewhere in the area of 37 million dollars,” he said.

“The construction of this modern waste treatment plant is in fulfillment of the provisions of the agreement the company signed with the Federal Government through the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA).

“In line with that Built, Operate and Transfer agreement, the African Circle Limited agreed to build this facility in accordance also with the IMO MARPOL 73/78 convention: to provide facilities for liquid and solid waste created on both vessels for the navigation districts of Lagos, Port Harcourt, Warri, Calabar and Onne.

“The agreement, I am told, is for a period of 20 years, and with the expiration of that period the facilities would be handed over to the NPA.”

Osinbajo said that the plant complemented the federal government’s remediation efforts in Niger Delta.