The Minister of Aviation and Aerospace Development, Festus Keyamo, has confirmed the readiness of the International Finance Corporation (IFC) to support current efforts by the Federal Government to upgrade infrastructure facilities in the nation’s Aviation sector.
Keyamo, who gave this hint while receiving the IFC team in his office in Abuja, thanked the board of the corporation for accepting to enhance the standard of infrastructure in Nigeria, particularly in the aviation space.
The minister described the corporation as a reliable development partner based on its past records and promised that Nigeria would give all it takes to ensure that the partnership yield results as the Infrastructure Concession Regulatory Commission (ICRC) had been streamlined for better efficiency.
He told the IFC team that investors were targeting Nigeria’s Aviation sector as investment destination due to the huge potential but decried the state of infrastructure in the sector as inadequate and calls for Public Private Partnership (PPP).
The minister said: “We are excited to work with you. All over Africa, infrastructural development is a challenge, Nigeria as a giant of Africa has the highest domestic travelling record which makes Nigeria a business hub.”
He assured IFC that there would be no delay in signing all necessary agreements and that Nigeria has taken step to remove all bottleneck.
In his remarks, the IFC Vice President Cross Cutting Solution, Emmanuel Nyirinkindi, said the purpose of his team’s visit to the minister was to explore partnership opportunities with Nigeria to enhance the government’s infrastructure development initiatives.
He said the corporation, which is an arm of the World Bank, currently had its presence in 100 countries globally and has invested a lot for the development of African nations.
Nyirinkindi said: “IFC is the largest global development institution which focuses on the private sector in developing countries, encourages growth, advances economic development, creates jobs and improves the lives of people.”
He commended the Minister for achievements recorded so far in the Aviation sector and restated the IFC’s commitment to ensuring that Nigeria continued to enjoy funding for infrastructure development.
The development finance expert urged the Minister to expedite action on partnership arrangement with the IFC, adding that with the track records of the corporation, Nigeria is rest assured of timely delivery after the formalization of the agreement with Nigeria.
