Nigeria 'held back by lack of basic infrastructure'
20 October 2009
The managing director of Uniliever Thomas Boedinger has applauded public and private efforts to invest in infrastructure but said much more needed to be done if Nigeria was to begin to realise its full industrial potential.
He drew attention to the fact that while big multinationals are able to secure the necessary facilities, smaller companies are at a distinct disadvantage and this was hurting the country's economic development.
"Most of us up there are actually running our factories on generators many small manufacturers like our suppliers [are struggling]," Mr Boedinger was quoted by the Nigeria Guardian as saying.
In this way, high costs were often being passed down to the consumer.
The director went on to laud government efforts, which he said had been making the most out of public-private partnerships to develop infrastructure "despite its limited resources".
One such project Mr Boedinger referred to as an example was the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway contract, which was awarded by the government to Bi-Courtney for 25 years a few months ago.