 I'm very pleased to welcome you all to this webinar on deepening Nigeria's infrastructure stock through public-private partnerships. In spite of government interventions over the years, Nigeria still faces a huge infrastructural deficit, which is constraining rapid economic growth. According to the Nigerian Integrated Infrastructural Master Plan and the Economic Recovery and Growth Plan, Nigeria needs up to $3 trillion over the next 30 years to breach the infrastructure gap. To put this in perspective, the federal government would have to spend the entire revised 2020 appropriation of $10.81 trillion, continuously, for the next 108 years or more on capital expenditure alone to meet that target. The fact that only $2.49 trillion was appropriated for capital expenditure in 2020 reflects the importance of a deliberate and pragmatic action to boost infrastructural spending. So it seems to me to be quite clear that the financial outlay and management capability required for infrastructure development and service delivery outstrip the financial and technical resources that are available to government. In other words, the traditional method of building infrastructure through budgetary allocations is completely inadequate and is said to become harder because of the increasingly limited fiscal space. So federal government recognizes this fact, which is why we are considering other options to complement and boost financing for development and maintenance of infrastructure in Nigeria. It's clear that this deficit can only be made up by private investment. Private sector is 92 percent of GDP, while the public sector is a mere 8 percent. So the synergy between the public and private sector through public-private partnerships is rarely the realistic solution. If properly designed and executed, PPP models will unlock innovative infrastructure financing and management in a transparent and more efficient manner. Indeed, using PPP frameworks, Nigeria has the potential to attract and benefit immensely from huge local and foreign private sector resources. We've however not even fully leveraged the opportunities afforded to us by public-private partnerships, perhaps due to a lack of clarity on the institutional responsibilities and decision criteria. There has indeed been some ambiguity, particularly as it pertains to the roles of the Infrastructure Conception Regulatory Commission, the ICRC, and the Borough Public Enterprises, BPE, and other stakeholders involved in the PPP practice in the country. So the federal government recently has issued a circular on the administration of PPP projects in the country to provide the much-needed clarity. The circular re-emphasizes that the BPE shall be responsible for the concession of public enterprises and infrastructure already listed in the first and second shadows of the Public Enterprises Act. The circular equally stipulates that the PPP shall act on behalf of the federal government of Nigeria as a counterparty on all infrastructure projects being developed on a PPP basis, whilst the ICRC continues to act as the regulatory agency for PPP transactions with powers to inspect, supervise, and monitor the projects and processes in order to ensure compliance with relevant laws, policies, and regulations. So it's expected that this new policy direction would provide clarity to stakeholders and foster the improvement of PPP programs in the country. Ministries, departments, and agencies, as well as multilateral development agencies, and all our development partners, are urge to support the PPP policy objectives and institutional arrangements already put up now by government. We're of course willing to continue to dialogue and incorporate suggestions from stakeholders with a view to further strengthening Nigeria's PPP framework. As part of the new environment being created for the implementation of PPP projects, the federal government through the CBN, the Nigerian Sovereign Investment Authority, an African Finance Corporation, and other financial institutions will be creating a 15 trillion Naira infrastructure fund that will help not only to unlock investments from local sources, but also attract foreign private investments in infrastructure development. That infrastructure company will be professionally run by select managers who are chosen from, you know, via internationally accepted standards. They will bring in the best quality individuals to manage the infrastructure because most investors obviously would want to see a transparently run infrastructure. And we intend to provide exactly that to ensure that investments properly, that investors' resources are properly taken care of and that they are applied only to the very best possible projects after the management has looked at those projects carefully and chosen them carefully. You know, obviously they're meant to be commercial projects and we have to make sure that the income streams from there will be more than sufficient to pay for whatever, to assure investors that their investments will be profitable. In conclusion, I'd like to state that the current deficit in Nigeria's infrastructure presents both a challenge and an opportunity. For too long we have dwelt on the challenges, but we must now redirect our focus to the opportunities using PPPs as a springboard. The government of President Mohamed Buhari is strongly committed to the development of the country's infrastructure through PPP arrangements. We are therefore counting on the support and cooperation of our public and private sector partners, foreign partners, financial institutions and other important stakeholders towards a successful implementation of the government's new PPP policy. I wish you all very fruitful celebrations. Thank you very much.