A new development will see PPP units set up in every MDA
The federal government has said it would set up a Public Private Partnership (PPP) Unit in all its Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) to address the infrastructure gap in the country.
Head of the Civil Service of the Federation, Isa Sali, stated this at the National PPP Awareness and Sensitisation Programmes in Abuja, which was organised by the Infrastructure Concession Regulatory Commission (ICRC) in collaboration with the Office of the HOSF.
Sali noted that the country was suffering from huge infrastructure deficit cutting across numerous sectors like transportation, power, water supply, education, housing and health; adding that a recent estimate given by the Debt Management Office states that over $15 billion is required by Nigeria as capital investment to bridge its infrastructure deficit.
To address this, he noted that there was a need for collaborative efforts between the public and the private sector in the development of the nation’s infrastructure.
He said the federal government was determined to institutionalise the Public Private Partnership arrangement in the development of infrastructure in the country.
“Infrastructure forms the bedrock of all socio-economic development in any country and the lack of it, as it is the case with Nigeria, stifles economic growth and development, restrict productivity and limit competitiveness,” he said. “It is no longer a secret that the condition of our country’s infrastructure is dismal, and the present administration is working hard to ensure that the country meets its millennium development goals as well as realize its Vision for 2020.
I have no doubt in my mind that the setting up of PPP units in the MDAs will help in filling the resource gap in project delivery and operation as PPP arrangements engender acceleration of project delivery, leads to faster execution of projects and reduces the costs of projects.”
According to him, the private investor would in turn generate revenue either from levying of tariffs on user or the receipt of periodic service payments from the government over the life of the PPP arrangement.
He explained that the PPP arrangement involves the designing, building, financing and operation of assets and services of government by the private sector.
In the arrangement, the public sector maintainS ownership, oversight and quality assessment role; while the private sector is involved in the actual. delivery of the service or project.
