Nigeria’s planned $25bn sovereign fund attracting investors – Vice Pres. Osinbajo

NIGERIA plans to raise a $25 billion Infrastructural Fund from the global community is said to be attracting positive results Vice President Yemi Osinbajo has revealed

The Federal Government intends to establish long term bankable projects when the fund is put in place.

Receiving a delegation from the Lagos Chamber of Commerce on Tuesday at the presidential villa, the Vice President said some Foreign Wealth Funds around the world have also indicated interest to participate.

He said: “We have seen considerable, favourable interests from some sovereign wealth funds and other nations.

The Vice President said the Nigeria Sovereign Investment Authority which manages the country’s sovereign wealth fund is leading the project, adding that the Infrastructural Fund would create opportunity for commercial partners to participate in the building of the nation’s infrastructure alongside the Federal Government.

According to him, this would be done through the establishment of bankable projects that involves such commercial partners.

He disclosed that the China-Exim Bank has agreed to finance the railway projects linking Lagos to Kano and Lagos to Calabar. According to him: ‘We expect these will generate some economic activities and create jobs.”

The Vice President reiterated the Federal Government’s determination to raise revenue internally to fund the budget including through an expansion of VAT coverage but not an increase of the VAT rate. At 20% coverage the VAT coverage now, the Federal Government intends to do much better giving a boost to the country’s tax revenues.

The delegation of the Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry was led by Chief Mrs. Nike Akande, who declared the support of the Chamber for the Federal Government’s fight against corruption and acknowledged that in the current economic situation that the Buhari presidency is having to deal with “there are no easy choices.”

Akande, a former federal minister for Industry called on the Central Bank of Nigeria to find a foreign exchange regime that would boost the confidence of investors and remove uncertainly.

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