The Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation and the Infrastructure Concession Regulatory Commission have constituted a delivery committee to actualise Federal Government’s gas revolution plan through a Public Private Partnership initiative.
At a meeting of the two government agencies on Wednesday in Abuja, the Group Managing Director of NNPC, Mr. Austen Oniwon, and the ICRC Director General, Mr. Mansur Ahmed, both agreed to lead the delivery team for the Calabar-Ajaokuta-Kano gas pipeline.
“In order to harness the economic linkages of the gas revolution, it has become important to kick start the process that would provide the infrastructure necessary for effective gas distribution,” Oniwon said.
He observed that the huge cost of the trans-Nigeria gas pipeline has made it imperative to explore the PPP option in such a way as to attract long-term investors.
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He noted that while gas generation might not be a problem, the lack of distribution infrastructure has hampered the growth of businesses that are dependent on gas.
According to him, fertilizer and petrochemical plants would do better, and this would translate into better agricultural yields should there be gas availability to power the plants and blending firms particularly in agricultural zones.
He commended the initiatives by the ICRC to awaken public institutions to the PPP opportunities for infrastructure service delivery.
ICRC’s DG, Mansur, welcomed the partnership with NNPC and described the gas infrastructure as the key to unlocking Nigeria’s economic potential.
“We will be taking a step towards sustainable growth if we use what we have in abundance to propel growth and development in other areas of our economy,” the ICRC boss said.
He disclosed that the commission has identified 60 critical infrastructure projects to be executed over the next four years so as to make Nigeria set to achieve it’s Vision 20:2020 goal of becoming one of the world’s largest 20 economies in 2020.
