Govt needs $100b to revive infrastructure, says ambassador

THE Ambassador of Nigeria to Germany, Mr. Abdul Bin Rimdap, has said that Nigeria needs about $100 billion investment in infrastructure development.

He said there was the great need to develop infrastructure to aid industrialisation, trade and commerce.

In a paper he presented at the fifth Trade Development Forum, organised by the Nigerian German Business Group in collaboration with Cashcraft Asset Management Limited recently in Germany, and obtained by The Guardian in Lagos, Rimdap called for the export diversification of the economy from oil and gas production, adding that the economy has the largest gas reserve in Africa.

He said with a Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of $166.8 billion in 2007, the economy has great investment prospect in such areas as telecommunication, infrastructure development, construction and agro-industries.

The envoy said the economy is the largest domestic market in Africa, the second biggest economy in sub-Saharan Africa, and economically, most important country in West Africa to German.

Speaking at the event, the Regional Director for West Africa at the German Federal Agency for Foreign Trade, Mr. Dieter Grau, adjudged Nigeria as Germany's second largest trading partner in Africa after South Africa.

Gau stated that Nigeria was the second biggest economy in sub-Saharan Africa and economically, most important country in West Africa to German.

He said that Nigeria has the largest domestic market in Africa with about 145 million inhabitants and economy dominated by oil and gas oil production.

He listed German export to Nigeria to include machineries, vehicles and parts, electrical goods, plastic, iron and steel, metal hardware, paper, measurement and control technology.

Speaking on the repellent sides of the economy, he explained that the country depend heavily on hydrocarbons.

He added: "The structure of Nigeria's foreign trade has been dominated by petroleum since the early 1970s, since then oil has generally accounted for around 95 per cent of total exports. Gas became second largest export commodity after rise in LNG shipments since October 1999. Nigeria's main export products are petroleum and related products, as well as cocoa, rubber, machinery, chemical, transport equipment, manufactured goods, food and live animals."

In his remark also at the event, the President of the Nigerian-German Business Group, Mr. Joe Femi-Dagunro, advised the German businessmen to support the growth of Nigeria business by involving themselves only in genuine and transparent businesses.

He said the report of Transparency International showed that some foreign companies have taken Nigerians for granted as a habitat for corruption and advised the Nigerian business community to create a better business attitude, encourage the development of their youths and promote grassroots political development for an accelerated and sustained business growth.

Speaking on the opportunities in the Nigerian capital market, Dagunro stated: "The outcome of the investment in the stock market in the past one year is however a mixed bag because of the market melt-down experienced by the Nigerian stock market between March and August this year. The market capitalisation, which peaked at N15.265 trillion in March dropped to N10.920 trillion in June and reached an all time low of N8.8 trillion in the last six months before the government intervened in the market in August, in line with global practices because of the linkage of the financial markets.

"By the time the government intervened, the market had dropped close to 50 per cent. I wish to assure you that the prolonged correction in the market is not unusual. Volatility is a main feature of investments in the capital market. Other emerging markets, like India and Pakistan, which witnessed such corrections recently are on the path of growth agai, just like the Nigerian stock market, which started to recover with government intervention late August."

He therefore assured that the Nigeria economy was getting stronger, as corporate performance was now improving and that government at various levels were addressing the issue of decadent infrastructure