Vision 20:2020 and the Challenges of Infrastructural Development in Nigeria

Abstract

Nigeria is the most populous black nation on planet earth and sets a great vision to be among the top 20 economies in the world by 2020 with a minimum GDP of $900 billion and a per capita income of no less than $4000 per annum. This paper argues that infrastructural development is critical to achievement of the vision. Consequently, a discourse on theoretical framework and review of literature on the role of infrastructure in economic development was undertaken. The paper also places the country’s economy in a global context and assessed the state of infrastructural development in the country. Also, factors responsible for the current state of infrastructural development in the country were examined. The paper reveals that two years into the vision, the country’s economy is growing at a very low pace than envisaged. It also reveals that the quantity and quality of infrastructure needed to propel a rapid economic development are absent. The paper recommended adequate funding of infrastructure in critical sector, transparency and good governance, population control and physical planning of settlements among others for the realization of the vision. The paper concluded that the war of economic transformation through infrastructural development in the country would be lost or won in our settlements where productive economic activities are located; hence physical planning that will propel infrastructure development in major settlements and across the regions of the country is germane to the realization of the 2020 vision.