President Muhammadu Buhari has asked foreign investors for $1.5 trillion to bridge Nigeria’s infrastructure gap over the next ten years period.

Mr Buhari gave the figure on Tuesday in Glasgow at a COP 26 high-level side event on improving global infrastructure hosted by President Joe Biden of the U.S., EU Commission President Von Der Leyen and UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson.

The president’s spokesperson, Garba Shehu, in a statement on Tuesday in Abuja, quoted him as saying, “Nigeria is ready for your investments in infrastructural development in the country… We look forward to working with you in this regard.”

Mr Buhari was quoted to have told the audience that “My administration has established a clear legal and regulatory framework for private financing of infrastructure to establish a standard process, especially on the monitoring and evaluation process.”

He said new investments in infrastructure in critical sectors of the country’s economy would aid in lifting 100 million Nigerians out of poverty by 2030.

Mr Buhari said in 2015, he met Nigeria with a “huge infrastructure deficit and the total National Infrastructure Stock was estimated at 35% of our Gross Domestic Product.”

The president said since then his government has “embarked on a massive infrastructure expansion programme in the areas of Health care, Education, Transportation, Manufacturing, Energy, Housing, Agriculture, and Water Resources.”

He welcomed the G7 countries plan to mobilise hundreds of billions of dollars of infrastructure investment for low and middle-income countries.

“Assistance for capacity building, including for project preparation, should be provided to developing countries with the participation of international organizations,” he added.

(NAN)