By Ngozi Onyeakusi — The Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, has disclosed that the Federal Government had earmarked $1.3 billion to fund five critical infrastructure projects across the country.

According Mohammed the projects would be funded under the Presidential Infrastructure Fund (PIF) to be managed by the Nigerian Sovereign Investment Authority (NSIA).

Specifically, the minister disclosed that PIF with seed fund of $1.3 billion would be used to finance the five projects that had hitherto had suffered funding shortfall.

He listed the projects as, the Lagos-Ibadan Express Way, Abuja-Kano Road, the East-West Road, the Mambila Power Project and the Second Niger Bridge.

According to him, the fund for early works on the Mambila project is assured and for the other four projects, government is striving to meet the financial needs with their completion deadlines.

On the present administration’s borrowing level so far, Mohammed said: “When we came into power in 2015, the total debt profile of the country was 53 billion dollar, we have only borrowed 10 billion dollar extra. When compared with between 2010 and 2015, the previous administration had a higher debt profile.

“In 2010, Nigeria was only owing N35 billion but by 2015, the debt profile had risen to N53 billion. This means that in five years, the previous administration borrowed N28 billion, while in three and half years we borrowed N10 billion”, the minister added.

Mohammed maintained that the funds borrowed by the President Buhari-led administration were spent on developing the nation’s infrastructure unlike the previous administration that could not account for borrowed funds in terms of tangible results.