08 June 2013, Lagos – The Infrastructure Bank Plc, TIB, has been chosen as the fund manager to the federal government’s N25 billion Public Mass Transit Revolving Fund, PMTF, scheme.
Managing Director, Adekunle Oyinloye, disclosed this in a paper presented at the 53rd annual conference of the Nigerian Association of Chambers of Commerce, Industry, Mines and Agriculture, NACCIMA, held in Kano, recently. He also said the bank is an investor in and transaction advisor to the Marina Express Consortium awarded the preferred bidder status for the design, build, operate and transfer, DBOT, of the US$2 billion Lagos State Metro Light Rail Transit project.
“The new image and vision of the bank is aimed at achieving greater heights in delivery of infrastructure mandates as a means of strengthening the bank’s competitive advantage within the market space and business segments,” he said.
The paper which is entitled, ‘Development Financial Institutions: Key partners for economic prosperity – Role of infrastructure Bank Plc,’ he noted that, “infrastructure contributes to economic development by increasing productivity and providing amenities which enhance the quality of life. The provision of adequate infrastructure unlocks the hidden potentials of the economy, generates employment in the short run with significant long term economic benefits. For it to be able to compete in the modern world, Nigeria must improve its infrastructure.”
He further explained that the bank has a clear mission, “to transform Nigerian infrastructure for enhanced productivity, adding that the bank is a development partner and financial facilitator; structurally and functionally complimentary to the commercial banking sector and the needs of public and private sector infrastructure development promoters.”
Oyinloye however noted that TIB’s major focus is on the areas of transportation, mass housing, municipal services and commercial ventures, water provision and solid waste management, power and renewable energy.
The Infrastructure bank is one of Nigeria’s Development Finance Institutions, DFI that help to ensure investment in areas where otherwise the private sector may not ordinarily invest, and are therefore catalysts assisting governments in countries where there is restricted access to domestic and foreign capital markets by providing risk mitigation that enables investors to proceed with plans they might otherwise abandon.
*Jonah Nwokpoku, Vanguard
