Alternative Bank: Nigeria Needs More Private Capital for Infrastructure

Nigeria needs to channel significantly more private capital into infrastructure development if it is to close its long-standing infrastructure gap and sustain economic growth, according to Alternative Bank, a Nigerian non-interest banking institution.

The bank’s position, as reported by The Nation Newspaper, comes as debate continues in Africa’s largest economy about how to finance roads, rail, power and other capital projects that successive administrations have struggled to deliver on budget alone. Public spending on infrastructure in Nigeria has historically fallen below the levels widely regarded as necessary to support a population of more than 200 million people and one of the continent’s biggest industrial bases.

Financing the gap

Nigeria’s infrastructure deficit spans power generation, where supply still struggles to keep pace with demand, to a transport network that constrains the movement of goods between coastal ports and the hinterland. Bridging that gap requires investment on a scale that public finances, squeezed by fluctuating oil revenues and competing spending pressures, have not been able to provide.

Non-interest banking, the segment in which Alternative Bank operates, has expanded in Nigeria over the past decade as authorities have sought to broaden the range of financial instruments available to investors and depositors. Proponents argue that such institutions can mobilise long-term savings and channel them into productive assets, including infrastructure projects that would otherwise wait for limited public funds.

Broader context

The call for greater private-sector participation reflects a long-running policy consensus in Abuja that government cannot meet Nigeria’s infrastructure needs alone. Successive administrations have pursued public-private partnerships and concession arrangements, though the pace of execution has often been uneven and the results unevenly distributed across the country’s six geopolitical zones.

As The Nation Newspaper reported, Alternative Bank’s message underscores the view that mobilising private capital is now central to Nigeria’s development ambitions, rather than merely a complement to public spending.

Sources

This report was written from coverage published by the following news organisations. Follow the links for the original reporting.

• The Nation Newspaper — Alternative Bank: Nigeria needs more private capital for infrastructure