THE groundswell of efforts towards repositioning the nation's construction industry to meet the demands of an emerging economy got underway last week, when the Nigerian Institute of Quantity Surveyors (NIQS) recommended to the Federal Government to back private sector's infrastructure financing initiative.The body said that the private sector is ready to invest in tackling Nigeria's infrastructure challenge estimated at around N30 trillion but only if the appropriate environment and incentives are put in place by the government.The development is coming on the heels of a new report ranking Nigeria as one of the emerging economy, with great prospect in construction development and predicting that the value of construction in emerging countries, including Nigeria, will more than double in the next 11 years according to Global Construction 2020.According to Global Construction Perspectives and Oxford Economics (GCPOE), China is expected to overtake the U.S. as the world's largest construction market in 2018. By 2020, the Chinese construction market is expected to be worth $2.5 trillion - a staggering 19.1 per cent of the global total. Poland is seen as one of the ten fastest growing construction markets in the world between now and 2020, and further east Russia also shows great potential, with similarly high growth taking the market to US$ 335 billion by the same time. Besides China and Russia, Global Construction Perspectives sees India, Nigeria and Vietnam as the fastest growing construction markets over the next 11 years. Specifically, NIQS President, Mr. Agele Alufohai in good will message at a two-day seminar, on 'Private Finance Initiative As A Veritable Tool For Infrastructure Development in An Emerging Economy', organized by NIQS, Lagos Chapter, last week, called on the Federal Government to match words with action on national transformation by pursuing a vigorous policy which backs infrastructure finance through Public Private Partnerships (PPPs).Alufohai canvassed for government's investment in developing the capacity to convince all Nigerians that PPPs are critical to the country's aspiration for economic diversification and growth.According to him, 'We won't have investment in agro-processing in the Middle Belt if the communications network to transport and evacuate inputs and products to Nigerian and international markets are lacking. Financiers and investors won't regard us as serious people if we carry buckets about to flush toilets in sweaty airports'.To underscore this position, he cited the annual educational spend by Nigerians in Ghanaian universities which currently stands at N155 billion. This figure, he noted, was more than the N122 billion which is used to fund Nigerian universities.Against this backdrop, the NIQS President said: 'What this tells us is that investors in Public Private Partnerships in Nigeria, whether Private Finance Initiatives (PFIs) or Build Operate and Transfer (BOT) concessions are investing in solid assets because the need for infrastructure is acute and users possess the means to pay for using the assets, whether airports or toll roads'.He decried government's penchant for constant reviews of concessions or PPPs and called on the private sector to send the message clear to the government that such probes will not serve any national good. 'Reviews and probes tend to give the impression of policy unreliability and inconsistence-that a deal you sign in Nigeria is as good as the tenure of the incumbent Minister', he added.The private sector, he said further, is interested in solid plans to identify big infrastructure projects that are critical to the functioning of the national economy rather than the current scenario where 70 percent of the national budget of N4.5 trillion goes to consumption and other expenses to maintain the state apparatus.Speaking on 'Mitigating Project Risks through Effective Risk Management', a UAE-based firm civil engineer, Dr. Segun Faniran, noted that despite the good news from the report, he said risk management is one of problem that the country should be fully prepared for.According to Faniran, these risks are of different perspectives, ranging from political, financial, infrastructural and natural risks.' Nigerian professionals, consultants and contractors need to prepare for other factors such as policy inconsistent that usually lead to project abandonment, lack of qualified/competent personnel, technicians and artisans, among others', advised Faniran, adding that the emerging boom in construction industry in Nigeria can be a blessing, or curse, just like oil and gas, depending on how it is being handled.
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