FG to strengthen PPP contracts for infrastructure development

Ifeanyi Onuba, Abuja

The Federal Government said it would strengthen the Public Private Partnership arrangement in the country to enable it use the model to effectively address the huge infrastructure deficit in the country.

The government said it would achieve this by addressing the impediments currently affecting the effective implementation of PPP agreements in the country.

The Minister of State,  Budget and National Planning, Mrs Zainab Ahmed, said the need to address the impediment became imperative since PPP contract is a reliable option for bridging Nigeria’s infrastructure deficit.

Ahmed stated this in Abuja at the opening of a workshop on PPP management in the public sector organised for Ministries, Departments and Agencies of government.

She explained that the workshop was organized to enhance Nigeria’s national PPP management capability, which is in line with the priority of the present administration towards building a competitive economy.

This, she added, would improve the business environment for increased private sector investments in infrastructure development.

She said, “The gaps in PPP management capabilities in federal MDAs have been identified as major constraints to optimizing PPP investments.

“The skill sets and readiness to manage investments that may come in the form of PPP initiatives are generally inadequate and sometimes nonexistent” She said.

The minister  explained  that Nigeria’s Integrated Infrastructure Master Plan would require funding of over $166bn, adding that an effective PPP arrangement was vital in raising the needed fund to build the infrastructure gap.

She noted that the current economic realities in the local and global environment,  caused by falling oil prices in the international market and shortfall in daily oil output have seriously constrained government’s ability to increase investment in infrastructure development.

She said, “The NIIMP envisages increased participation of private sector through different PPP arrangements.

“Government is expected to leverage on up to $25bn through infrastructure PPPs in the first five years of NIIMP.

“This will require properly designed and managed PPP processes in order to reap the full benefits of PPP financing and to mitigate negative unintended consequences.”

Ahmed said the inadequate institutional capacity in the MDAs needed to be addressed  to enable Nigeria attract the envisaged PPP investments in an increasingly competitive global infrastructure market.