Emmanuel Addeh in Yenagoa
A consortium of private investors on Thursday pledged to fund some uncompleted projects in Bayelsa state in continuation of its partnership with government aimed at closing the infrastructure gap in the state.
Led by Dr. Chike Okogu, a facilitator to Infrastructure Bank PLC, the businessmen noted that the whole idea was to take the financial burden off the government to enable it concentrate on other important issues.
Okogwu, who is the Principal Consultant, Innovative Ideas Development Services, expressed the investors’ excitement over some projects toured by the group with government officials in the state.
Some of the projects inspected by the investors were the unfinished 350-bed hospital in Yenagoa, the Bayelsa farm project in Ebedebiri, Sagbama local council, the airport project, the power infrastructure, state water project among others.
Okogwu said, “ if you don’t come out to see what’s going on, you won’t appreciate what work is going on. We are excited. We have become a part of these projects.
“ The plan is to inject electricity. All the projects are intertwined. Every top dollar put here is likely to be recovered. There’s so much work going on.
“ In terms of equity investment, it will not be a financial burden on the government. That is the whole idea. Private investors will fund the projects and balance things out eventually.
“We had a different projection when we came. But we are not looking at anything less than 200m dollars (over N70bn). Millions of people will be employed. These investments are not short-term, but long term, say 10 to 20 years”.
However, speaking on the airport project specifically, the State government disclosed that the Federal Government had stopped work on its part of the ongoing Yenagoa International Airport project.
Further details later
