Minister of Water Resources, Mrs Sarah Reng Ochekpe has said that Israeli Investors have indicated interest to partner Nigerian Government to complete some of the on-going water projects.
The Minister made this known when she received in her office, Israeli investors led by the former Nigerian Minister of Information Prof. Jerry Gana in Abuja.
Mrs. Ochekpe said that although Federal Government had done much in providing funds to complete some of the projects, however the Ministry was still in partnering with private investors to complete projects that were not yet completed.
She assured the investors that Nigerian government was willing to partner with any country that is ready to improve on the socio economic development of Nigerians.
In his comment, the Head of Public Private Partnership (PPP) Benson Ajisegiri said that the Ministry had categorized the water projects available for partnership with private sectors into two namely Brownfield and Greenfield projects.
He said Brownfield projects were the projects that had been developed but not yet completed due to inadequate funding while green field projects were those projects that had not been developed but was earmarked for development as one of the projects that needed for economic development of the country.
He said that interested investors would look at the projects and choose the ones they were interested in. It is expected that Nigeria and Israel will process and sign MOU on any of the identified projects, the investors would develop the projects and transfer back to Nigeria who will then pay back the capital later.
Earlier the leader of the delegation, Prof. Jerry Ghana said that the Israeli investors had already invested in some African countries such as Angola and Ghana and were willing to invest in Nigeria being the largest economy in Africa.
Also a member of the delegation, Mr. Eli Griner, senior consultant said that their objectives to invest much in irrigation activities, to create employment opportunity to local people thereby reducing security challenges in the country.
