By Meletus EZE
Mr Ross Oluyede, the Managing Director, Infrastructure Bank Plc, has called on Nigerian engineers to evolve viable solutions that could be funded to address the infrastructure deficit in the country.
Oluyede made the call on Friday in Abuja at the 10th Fellowship Conferment Lecture of the Nigerian Society of Engineers (NSE).
TBI Africa said the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that 39 engineers were conferred as fellows of NSE, the highest level in engineering practice in Nigeria.
He pledged the commitment of the bank to support engineers, to ensure that home grown viable solutions to infrastructure challenges were developed.
“I think it is high time that we begin to look inwards to create solutions around water, transportation, electricity and housing that are financeable, to reduce the overall cost of developing infrastructure.
“Most of the infrastructure stock
that we see that are being developed in recent times rely extensively on the expertise that are imported and they come at a very high cost.
“We need little solutions that can address the needs of Nigerians and help to catalyse the economic development of the country,” he said.
He called for conducive and favourable regulatory environment for private sector to invest in infrastructure, adding that the goal of every investor was to get returns on investment.
Oluyede said that infrastructure was vital and could be argued to be the most important factor to the economic stability of any country.
According to him, most of the countries of the world classified as developed countries have a well developed infrastructure stock.
He said that aging infrastructure occasioned by funding constraint, rising cost of maintenance, as well as little or no attention to environmental protection, were consequences of insufficient planning and under investment in infrastructure.
The managing director lauded the Federal Government over its initiative to develop the national integrated infrastructure master plan.
He said that the road map was to provide world class infrastructure that would guarantee sustainable growth and boost economic recovery.
Oluyede called for an urgent need to create and speedily ramp up Nigeria’s infrastructure in terms of size and quality in line with what was available in the global average.
