Dr Chidi Izuwah, Acting Director-General, Infrastructure Concession Regulatory Commission (ICRC) says Public Private Partnership (PPP) is key in order to avoid failed projects, especially in this era of budgetary challenges.
Izuwah said this at the 4th Quarter 2018 Public-Private Partnership Unit Consultative Forum (3PUCF) in Abuja.
“We have not yet achieved our goal of massive up scaling of our national infrastructure stock, however, the steady progress recorded in different sectors keeps on encouraging us to do more.
“Everybody in the infrastructure space agrees that PPPs are the way to go, especially in this era of serious budgetary challenges.
“That is the more reason we insist that PPPs be done properly to avoid failed PPP projects or loading our future generation with undue contingent liabilities.’’
He recalled that the Federal Executive Council (FEC) had recently approved the “Warehouse in a Box’’ project of the Ministry of Health and the ECOWAS Biometric project of the Ministry of Interior.
He urged the Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) to put in more efforts in concluding more projects at the pre-contracts phase and subsequently proceed to the implementation phase.
He said the commission as at November, issued 22 Outline Business Case and 10 Full Business Case Compliance Certificates and expressed the hope that more projects would be certified for compliance before end of the year.
In his address, the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Budget and National planning, Mr Olajide Olawale reiterated government’s commitment to ramp up infrastructure investment in the country.
According to Olawale, Nigeria has high infrastructure deficit, arising from low level of infrastructure stock, which is estimated to be low compared to the required benchmark.
“This deficit is estimated in the National Integrated Infrastructure Master Plan (NIIMP) to be about 20 per cent to 25per cent of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) compared to an international benchmark of 70 per cent.
“The present administration is clearly determined to bridge the gap to bring the Nigerian economy to the desired state.
“The NIIMP visualises increased participation of the private sector in infrastructure development in Nigeria and over 80 billion dollars is expected as direct private investment in infrastructure during the first five years of NIIMP implementation.
“Government is expected to leverage on up to 25 billion dollars through infrastructure PPPs during the same period.
“Optimising this investment opportunities will require properly designed and well packaged infrastructure projects which the private investors can easily pick on the shelf,’’ Olawale said.
He further expressed the ministry’s desire to harvest rich perspective from the public and private sector operators.
This he said would further facilitate a clear, transparent and consistent enabling environment for private investments in infrastructure development.
NAN
