A multinational company, Nigeria Backbone Infrastructure Limited (BINL), wants to partner with willing business concerns that will be ready to align with its dream to invest in Nigeria’s economy within the next 22 years. The company said it is targeting an investment of about $172billion to develop Nigeria’s mineral resources, energy, agriculture, housing, and transportation sectors for the next 22 years.
The Group Chief Executive Officer, Henry Owonka, said the company with foreign partners was seeking approval for a joint venture model to facilitate its planned investment in the country. Owonka emphasised that the company intends to align with the current administration’s infrastructure plan, highlighting that a consistent influx of investment, as proposed by the company, is preferable to isolated investments by other investors especially in the mining sector.
He said: “What we are looking for is for us to structure our program of investment, we are not looking for a sovereign guarantee which will deplete the foreign reserves but innovative ways to collateralise those natural resources that the country has in abundance.” He gave assurance that the risk is worth taking, adding that “The president has verbally approved our request.” He said, “We are seeking approval for a joint venture model because in that way we can draw more investors not only in the country but also outside the country. Because when you have a joint venture with the government, it’s better and that’s what we are seeking rather than for them to just issue land to us.”
The company expressed its interest in investing in a range of commodities.
The CEO, stating plans for the mining sector, noted that the company is ready to invest $4 billion, “to explore mineral resources but we need data and that is also one of the offers we proposed so that we can bring in our expertise and help the government obtain accurate data and then we can explore those minerals. This partnership will help the government plan to reduce dependence on crude oil. We are also doing this across all the ministries because it’s a $172 billion investment drive.”
In a presentation at the Ministry of Solid Minerals Development, the Chief Operations Officer, Clement Kwegyir-Afful, explained that the investment drive is to reduce the huge infrastructural gap in the country.
“The current administration is looking for several investments to come in through the private sector to reduce the infrastructure gap. The NBIL has come together as a team to support the government to achieve this mandate without any sovereign guarantee.
