World Bank: Foreign Sponsors Driving Major Projects in Nigeria

A new report by the World Bank has indicated that the execution of major infrastructural projects in Nigeria was being driven by foreign sponsors.

The report titled ‘Private participation in infrastructure 2020 annual report,’ noted that a sizable 2020 PPI investment commitments in Nigeria were mainly due to a big-ticket natural gas pipeline projects.

“Nigeria has managed to report PPI investment commitments for five consecutive years since 2015. Sizable 2020 PPI investment commitments in Nigeria were mainly due to a big-ticket natural gas pipeline project.

“The $2.6billion pipeline will transport up to 3,500 million cubic feet of gas a day from various gas gathering projects in southern Nigeria.

“Projects with foreign sponsors, especially from China, have played an important role in developing sizable infrastructure projects in Nigeria.”

The report identified the Ajaokuta-Kaduna-Kano pipeline project as one the four natural gas projects in some countries with $6.9billion in investment commitments in 2020.

The Ajaokuta–Kaduna–Kano pipeline is being developed by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) to transport natural gas from southern Nigeria to central Nigeria.

“The $2.8billion pipeline project represents phase one of the 1,300-kilometer TransNigerian Gas Pipeline project, which is being developed as part of Nigeria’s Gas Master Plan to utilise the country’s surplus gas resources for power generation as well as for consumption by domestic customers,” it stated.

“The pipelines will provide a faster, more economical means of delivering natural gas to locations around the world,” it stated.

According to the report, investment commitments in 2020 stood at $45.7billion across 252 projects, marking a 52 per cent decline from 2019 levels.