Grid Collapse: Atiku Proposes $20 Billion Infrastructure Debt Fund For The Financing Of Large Infrastructure Projects

PDPS’s Presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar reacted to news of another power blackout in Nigeria, stating that his administration will launch a $20 billion consortium of private sector institutions to establish an Infrastructure Debt Fund (IDF) to primarily mobilise domestic and international private resources for the financing and delivery of large infrastructure projects.

Atiku disclosed this in a statement on Twitter on Wednesday evening following a recent Power blackout.

Eko Electricity Distribution confirmed that the latest grid incident occurred at around 11.27am, Wednesday, July 20, 2022.

What Atiku said

He said “I am reliably informed that there was a total National Grid Collapse at precisely 12:23pm today. This is one collapse too many. It is the 6th time this is happening this year alone.

He added that due to the priority that he place on the power sector upon which the successes of other sectors are hinged, “I am proposing innovative financing of infrastructure that will involve the facilitation of a review of the financial, legal, and regulatory environment to promote private investment in power, among other sectors.

“I’ll promote the incentivisation, with tax breaks, a consortium of private sector institutions to establish an Infrastructure Debt Fund (IDF) to primarily mobilise domestic and international private resources for the financing and delivery of large infrastructure projects across all the sectors of the economy.

Atiku said IDF will have an initial investment capacity of approximately US$20 billion and also cause the creation of an Infrastructure Development Credit Guarantee Agency to complement the operation of the IDF by de-risking investments in infrastructure to build investor confidence in taking risks and investing capital.

What you should know

Nairametrics reported last month that President Muhammadu Buhari assured international investors that his administration is taking steps to improve Nigeria’s power supply despite constraints and bottlenecks which have seen multiple incidents of grid failures.

President Buhari said the Federal Government had earmarked $550 million to provide 20,000 Standalone Solar Systems (SHS), as well as Solar Hybrid mini-grids in over 250 locations.