Godwin Emefiele, Central Bank Governor has urged Nigeria corporate companies to float bonds so as to tackle the country’s infrastructural deficit. In a speech to President Buhari for signing the Executive Order Number 7, which opened the opportunity for private companies, such as Dangote and others, to intervene to rebuild infrastructure in the country. He also thanked Dangote Group for taking the initiative.
He described the construction work as a model road.
Emefiele stated, “These are the kind of roads we see when we travel abroad. It is a good thing for this country. When we talk about the Ease of Doing Business, you can imagine a situation where people have been complaining about the ease of transporting their goods out of the Apapa port.
“I am very delighted that Alhaji Dangote has taken the initiative. After clearing goods at the ports, there should be a solid road where these trucks can pass through to make life easy for people. These roads certainly would open up Nigeria and Lagos.
“Talking again about local content, this is 100 per cent local content. Alhaji Dangote uses his cement on this road, the rods, I understand, are coming from African Foundries that smelt waste steel, which is converted into iron bars and are being used for the road.”
The CBN governor added: “Let me say this, for those who may be interested, the federal government has been discussing issues around rebuilding the road infrastructure and we are looking at the opportunity of raising infrastructure bond to fund some of these roads.
“But because of the paucity of funds, we are encouraging private sector people to come in and raise infrastructure bonds at concessionary rates, with which they can build roads to support the efforts of government in developing this country.
“That is the only way this country can grow. This is what we need for our country so that Nigeria can regain its lost grounds. This is the right time for Nigeria to make progress in the area of infrastructure.
“When Alhaji invited me here, I was delighted because these are the kind of things we need to see and we need to talk about.”