Kwara to launch N4.2b infrastructure project

The Kwara State Government is set to launch its Infrastructure Development Fund, with an initial investment of N4.2 billion in the Energy Sector in the fourth quarter of 2016.
The State Governor, Alhaji Abdulfatah Ahmed, revealed this during an interaction with community leaders in his office on Friday.
Alhaji Ahmed said  IF-K has been codified into the Kwara State Public Private Partnership Law, which he assented to in 2015.
According to him, the IF-K project is a result of the Kwara Infrastructure  Investment and Finance strategy, which he approved following an infrastructure assessment exercise that was concluded in 2014.
He said the outcomes of the exercise showed an estimated N225 billion deficit value of infrastructure across all the 16 local government areas and spanning all sectors, which required both government and private investment in order to boost the state’s productivity and wealth creation.
Alhaji Ahmed said the main objectives of IF-K are to provide a guided, systemic and outward facing framework for continuous and consistent infrastructure development, optimally leverage private sector or resources for infrastructures development and maximize the state’s resource allocation policies.
Providing further details of IF-K, the Chief Economic Assistant to Governor Ahmed, Abayomi Ogunsola, said the fund will inculcate confidence in investors and encourage broader and deeper interactions with the Kwara State Government from different types of private or non-private partners.
Ogunsola said it will also promote banking and non-banking financial intermediary participation in infrastructure funding, provide incentives and serve as catalyst to mobilizing appropriate private sector capital, efficiency and expertise for the state’s infrastructure projects.
IFK, according to Ogunsola, also has an expected outcome of attaining stable development of Kwara State residents and businesses.
The Chief Economic Assistant said the IF-K project is one of the avenues for meeting the state’s current infrastructure needs and also a critical vehicle for proactively meeting future infrastructure needs.