Sufuyan Ojeifo
13 November 2008
Kano — Director General of the Budget Office, Dr. Bright Okogu, yesterday identified infrastructure challenge as an obstacle to private sector-led economic growth in the country.
He said that in a bid to address the problem of infrastructure gap, there was need for massive provisions of infrastructure to enable the Federal Government achieve its Seven-Point Agenda and the vision 20:2020.
Okogu listed inadequacy of traditional funding provision to bridge infrastructure demand and supply gap; poor/deferred maintenance culture leading to reduced useful lifespan of infrastructure; and, variable executive capacity of Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) which results on under-utilisation of capital budget as some of the factors that contribute to infrastructure gap.
He said this had led to the need to explore other options such as the Public-Private Partnership (PPP), which would entail fresh source of funding and better managerial capacity to surpass public sector executive capacity.
In a paper entitled: "Performance based budgeting and budgeting to bridge the infrastructure gap," delivered at the Senate Retreat in Kano, Okogu said that PPP would help to build the nation's infrastructure.
According to him, "Such partnership will enable the public sector to focus more attention on the outcome and core responsibilities."
He said there was the need to bridge the gap while maintaining economic stability, even as he noted that "excessive public expenditure leads to macroeconomic instability."
Okogu, however, said that "prioritisation of projects among competing ones in the 2009 budget proposal will ensure macroeconomic stability."
He pointed out that in the 2009 budget proposal "investment of 91% of the capital budget on government's priority sector with 46% of this investment in critical infrastructure developments" are investment strategies through which budgeting would be deployed to bridge the gap.
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