FG moves to appoint fund manager for $37 billion infrastructure company

The Federal Government has concluded plans to engage an asset manager for its newly set up Infrastructure Company of Nigeria Ltd. (Infra-Co), to raise about N15 trillion ($36.7 billion) for projects and accelerate growth in Africa’s biggest economy.

This is coming barely 2 weeks after President Muhammadu Buhari approved the government’s N1 trillion initial seed capital for the Infrastructure company, which will be set up under a Public-Private Partnership.

According to a report from Bloomberg, a source who wants to remain anonymous said that the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and its funding partners, Africa Finance Corporation (AFC) and state-owned Nigeria Sovereign Investment Authority, are seeking proposals from companies to independently manage the infrastructure company’s fund-raising plan.

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The sought after fund manager will be responsible for coordinating the total equity capital and associated debt raise required by the company with the asset managers seeking the role expected to have been active in infrastructure financing.

The CBN Governor, Godwin Emefiele, had earlier said that the government needs to be innovative in its approach to developing infrastructure in the country and believes that InfraCorp will be a major game-changer in this regard.

Some firms such as PricewaterhouseCoopers, Boston Consulting Group, McKinsey and KPMG have expressed interest in getting the role of transaction advisers on the deal with Ukiri Lijadu and Co. and Kenna Partners appointed legal advisers.

This is as the report says that the firms were either not available to confirm the development or could not make any comment yet.

What you should know

• It can be recalled that President Muhammadu Buhari, had earlier approved the government’s seed capital of N1 trillion for InfraCo, an infrastructure company, which will be wholly focused on critical infrastructure investment in the country, under a Public-Private Partnership.
• The President had said that InfraCo will be raising funds from the CBN, Nigeria Sovereign Investment Authority, Pension funds, and local and foreign private sector development financiers.
• This will help boost infrastructure investments to stimulate economic growth after exiting its second recession in 4 years in the fourth quarter and bridge the infrastructural gap in the country, with Nigeria needing at least $3 trillion over 30 years to close its infrastructure deficit.