Nigeria needs $100bn per annum for infrastructure financing deficit — Atiku

…Vows to end crude oil theft if elected

By Abimbola Abatta

To address the country’s infrastructure financing deficit, the Presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the 2023 elections, Atiku Abubakar, said Nigeria needs $100 billion per annum.

This is just as he hinted at the insufficiency of Nigeria’s annual budget of $30 billion.

According to him, Nigeria faces an infrastructure financing deficit of approximately $3 trillion over the next 30 years, and the financing requirement cannot be met by the public sector.

The PDP presidential candidate spoke yesterday as a guest of the organised private sector at the Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI) forum in Victoria Island, Lagos.

Abubakar vowed to put a stop to the menace of oil theft if he becomes the President, as he noted that there is no reason for crude oil theft to persist in Nigeria when other oil producing nations are benefiting.

In the words of the former Vice President, “There would be a need for a proper assessment of those who are responsible for this. I am not in the government, so I don’t know anything about it.

“I will call the agencies responsible to either stop it or go away. There is no reason why we should have crude oil theft when we should be benefiting.”

While responding to questions, he said Nigeria’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) had grown at an average rate of less than one per cent since the All Progressive Congress (APC) assumed power in 2015.

The PDP flag bearer added that the current growth of 3.5 per cent masked the real challenges facing the economy.

He agreed that the size of the government, and even that of the National Assembly, is large and promised to ‘rationalise it.’

Abubakar promised to create jobs and income opportunities that would reduce the likelihood of youths being involved in crime and violence.