The
Federal Government is working on "how to tap into the huge pension fund
to finance infrastructure in the country," Vice President Yemi Osinbajo
disclosed at the World Economic Forum holding in Davos, Switzerland on
Wednesday.
His
Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, Laolu Akande, in a
statement, quoted him as saying "To do this, we have to first de-risk
such financing models for infrastructure."
Osinbajo
cited President Muhammadu Buhari's administration's Social Investment
Programme as a radical idea that could advance the African continent.
He
told the panel that beyond welfare of Nigerians, their empowerment was
at the heart of the N500 billion Social Investment Programme.
"It
is about investment in people, in their skills, in youths, that we have a
N500bn allocation in our budget last year and proposed for this year
also. It is an investment in education and educating large numbers of
people in a short time. It's a radical thing to make that kind of
serious investment in education," he stated.
He
cited the N-Power scheme's training component for young graduates and
non-graduates in artesian and industrial middle-level skills as well as
the planned N100,000 grants to students of higher institutions in
Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics.
Speaking
at the panel of “Building Africa” where he was joined by Rwandan
President Paul Kagame, Osinbajo said the Federal Government "is
committed to investing more in infrastructure than in previous times by
ensuring that 30 percent of the budget goes into capital expenditure."
The
vice president, who said an active engagement with the private sector
was also of a great deal, cited the Dangote Group's 650,000bpd refinery
project.
Osinbajo,
who said the government was confident about the recovery of the
economy, was also quoted as asserting that the Nigeria's economy
remained the biggest on the continent.
"It
is not difficult to get out of where we are, if we understand why we are
where we are. The Nigerian economy remains indisputably the biggest in
terms of size of the economy," he said
At
the Business Interaction Group attended by several international
investors and business interests hosted by the Nigerian delegation,
Osinbajo said the newly developed Economic Recovery Growth Plan of the
Federal Government was designed to take nation out of recession and
continue to grow the economy.
The
vice president also stated that the planning of the 2017 budget was
based on the Economic Recovery Growth Plan which, according to him, will
be formally launched next month.
Read more at: Daily Trust
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