The Federal Executive Council (FEC) has approved the Renewed Hope Infrastructure Development Fund to facilitate effective infrastructure development across the country.
The fund is expected to tackle infrastructure in the areas of agriculture, transportation, ports, aviation, energy, healthcare, and education in the country.
Addressing State House reporters after Monday’s Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting at the Presidential Villa in Abuja, the Minister of Information, Mohammed Idris, said the fund will invest in critical national projects that will, among other things, promote growth, enhance local value-addition, create employment opportunities, and stimulate technological innovation and exports.
Also speaking on the fund, the Chairman of the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS), Zacch Adedeji, explained that the approach is how to sustainably mobilise resources to actually fund the development of the country.
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He said, “What we’ve observed is that we’ll need national infrastructure backbone and to get this done, if you look at the analysis of the Integrated Infrastructure Masterplan that was commissioned in 2020, we will require $895 billion in the next 10 years to actually bridge the gap of infrastructure problem.”
The Minister of Works Dave Umahi said FEC considered and approved the construction of 28 roads and bridges, adding that the projects totaling N1.267 trillion were approved, having gone through due process.
In his remarks, the Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Mr Wale Edun, said the president had approved the setting up of an economic management team task force.
The team would work for six months on economic revitalisation programmes of the administration, he said.
Edun said Nigeria was already getting offers of euro bonds to finance government programmes, but no decision had been made on the offer.