BusinessDay 26 Feb 2018

Monday 26 February 2018 C002D5556 BUSINESS DAY A11
NEWS
New report shows how Nigeria can
Lagos waste: Your position in bad taste,
plug $300bn infrastructure gap
… identifies weak regulatory framework as biggest constraint
ISAAC ANYAOGU
A
new report by the
Africa Finance Corporation
(AFC), a
pan-African finance
institution, and the Boston
Consulting Group, a global
consulting firm, says developing
a solid legal and regulatory
framework is crucial in
attracting private capital for
infrastructure projects in Nigeria
and other sub-Saharan
African (SSA) countries.
The report titled ‘Infrastructure
financing in sub-
Saharan Africa, best practices
from ten years in the field,’
draws on the experience and
best-practice advice of experts
from both the private
sector and the public sector
and found that most African
countries’ regulatory frameworks
remain limited and
piecemeal.
As a result, SSA has attracted
only $77 billion in
PPP projects, compared to
$124 billion in Turkey alone,
or $658 billion in South
America (with Brazil alone
representing $433bn). In
SSA, private investment in
core power and transport infrastructure
has been limited
to only $51 billion over the
last 25 years, the report said.
“These numbers highlight
Africa’s enormous potential
for growth going forward,”
the report avers. “Infrastruc-
ture investment in Africa
has the potential to be highly
profitable. Returns there, on
average, are likely to be significantly
higher than in Europe,
for example,” the report
says.
According to the African
Development Bank (AfDB),
Nigeria’s core stock of infrastructure
is estimated at only
20-25 percent of GDP, compared
with 70 percent for
other middle income countries
of its size, leaving an
infrastructure deficit of $300
billion. Only South Africa has
completed more public-private
partnership (PPP) infrastructure
deals over the past
25 years than Nigeria has.
African governments with
shoestring infrastructure
budgets need to clarify regulation,
develop fiscal incentives,
and facilitate provisions
that promote dispute settlement
and licensing. This is
because increased private
investor involvement in the
infrastructure space is the
best way to achieve intensive
job creation and incentivise
funding and skill transfer.
The report further said
that while projects have prospect
of generating higher return
on investment than similar
projects in other regions,
investors walk a minefield
of government and financial
markets challenges.
Complications could
arise from limited publicsector
capabilities to develop
strategic foresight and planning,
insufficient political
will, policy uncertainty, weak
regulatory environments,
shoddy law enforcement,
and dearth of technical skills.
Financial markets in
many African countries are
narrow with higher actual
and provisional risks; longer
project durations, significant
cost overruns, and currency
mismatches make financing
issues more complex.
“African governments
are attempting to address
these deficiencies. Of the
49 SSA, 42 now have enacted
legislation to provide
a regulatory framework for
private investment in infrastructure.
South Africa,
Rwanda, Botswana, and
Mauritius offer good examples
of advanced and robust
regulatory contexts,” the report
says.
Last year, lawmakers
in Nigeria passed the Federal
Roads Authority Bill
which establishes the Federal
Roads Authority (FRA)
under the purview of the
Ministry of Works, to sustain
the construction, rehabilitation
and connectivity of
roads between states in the
country. The National Road
Funds Bill (the NRF Bill) was
also introduced in 2017 to
assist in financing the development,
renewal and maintenance
of national roads.
VAIDS: FIRS
targets
N6.747trn tax
revenue
SEYI JOHN SALAU
As the March 31 amnesty
for tax evaders’
deadline under
the Voluntary Assets
and Income Declaration
Scheme (VAIDS) draws near,
the Federal Inland Revenue
Service (FIRS) says it target to
raise N6.747 trillion tax revenue
for 2018.
Babatunde Fowler, executive
chairman, FIRS, speaking
at the Institute of Directors
(IoD) Nigeria, Members’
Evening held in Lagos recently,
said VAIDS provided
an opportunity to increase
general tax awareness and
compliance among the general
public.
According to Fowler, FIRS
tax revenue target for the year
is based on a N3.776 trillion
expected from the non-oil
sector and N2.666 trillion
from the oil sector, which
represents 58.62 percent and
41.38 percent, respectively.
Fowler opined that, “Taxpayer
makes financial savings
that can be deployed to
other productive activities
while being tax compliant.
Government has more resources
to provide a conducive
business environment
(infrastructure and security).
“The interplay of gains by
taxpayers and the government
makes an adequate
canvas for economic growth
and development.”
PSP operators tell aggrieved members
... insist resolve to work with state,
Visionscape in best interest of Lagosians
DAVIID IBEMERE
Concerned stakeholders
of Association of
Waste Managers of
Nigeria (AWMN) on
Sunday condemned a statement
credited to an aggrieved
group within the association
faulting the resolve to work
with the Lagos State government
and an environmental
utility group, Visionscape
Sanitation Solutions to ensure
cleaner environment.
The aggrieved group, in
a statement by its chairman,
Oladipo Egbeyemi, had distanced
itself from the agreement
to work with the state to
rid it of filth adorning major
streets and highways, describing
the resolution as misleading
and untrue.
Responding, the concerned
stakeholders, in a statement
signed on their behalf by
Kasumu Afis Olasehinde of
Gafista Concepts Limited, said
the statement by the aggrieved
stakeholders was not only in
bad taste but had shown them
to care less about the interest
of Lagosians.
The stakeholders, comprising
of 48 Private Sector
Participant (PSP) operators in
waste management, said their
resolve to work with the state
to ensure the success of the
Cleaner Lagos Initiative (CLI)
was borne out of genuine
desire to protect the environment
and prevent outbreak of
any epidemic.
According to the statement,
“This kind gesture was warmly
received and accepted by the
government, but to the surprise
of many, a group believed
to be aggrieved from AWMN,
has come out to disown us for
offering a helping hand, you
must ask why? Are they angry
with progress? Are they peopleoriented
at all? Is this challenge
a thing of pride and ego to them
or service to the people?
“We have been rendering
unequalled outstanding
waste management service
to Lagosians for decades, and
it is the state of things that
necessitated our group’s initiative
to offer help and also
collaborate with Visionscape.
The Visionscape group sees
us as partners who will learn
a lot from each other and they
are willing to collaborate with
us to make Lagos clean.
“We also state that the
wellbeing of Lagosians is utmost
in our mind, and as we
approach the raining season,
we cannot just watch but also
intervene to avoid epidemic,
which is what the aggrieved
group does not care about.
“We can’t afford to let the
CLI fail, because if it does,
we will also be considered as
failure, hence a need to take
responsibility as a peopleoriented
group to render service
whether paid or unpaid;
laudable to say the least and
quite commendable and any
progressive would agree with
my group,” Olasehinde said.