Infrastructure Gap’
For Nigeria to be able to bridge its huge infrastructure gap , experts and stakeholders have said, the Public Private Partnership (PPP) model remains the most feasible means of addressing infrastructure gaps in emerging economies like Nigeria.
This is despite the challenges associated with the PPP model.
Speaking on ‘Closing Nigeria’s Infrastructural Gap with Public-Private Partnerships’ at 17th Annual Business Law Conference of the Nigerian Bar Association Section on Business Law (NBASBL), panelists stressed that the future of infrastructure development is in the PPP model and should be used carefully and responsibly.
Speaking on the urgent need to balance the hunger for infrastructural development with the challenge of climate change vis-a-vis its impact on the natural ecosystem and human communities, senior partner at the Africa 50 Infrastructure Acceleration Fund, Opiuyo Oforiokuma, noted that, Africa could be a global leader in this regard.
According to him, “The continent’s contribution to the problem of climate change is so meagre compared to the more industrialised economies and, if the rules were followed while pursuing sustainable development goals, Africa could be a torchbearer for a more responsible global developmental paradigm.”
He also recommended that in order to fix the worrisome dearth of infrastructure in Nigeria, the country needed to leverage what he called ‘bankable capital.’
On his part, director-general of the Ogun State PPP Agency, Dapo Oduwole, emphasised that the future of infrastructure development is in PPP, while chief executive of Nassarawa State Investment Development Agency, Ibrahim Abdullahi, highlighted the human element of development, saying, the silent ‘P’ in the PPP equation stands for ‘People’.
The panellists noted that there was the need for the Federal Government of Nigeria, along with corporate and intergovernmental organisations, to be more robust and intentional in their engagement with states and other subnational stakeholders given that the bulk of PPP projects actually reside within the purview of state governments.
They further harped on the need to have reliable policies and regulatory frameworks that focus on and address all the concerns around PPPs, including the issues of accountability and transparency, in order to ensure an enabling environment for the model to thrive.
The 2023 NBA-SBL Annual Business Law Conference, with the theme: “The Nigerian Business Landscape: Priorities for Law, Policy and Regulation,” featured several panel discussions which revolved around key sectors such as infrastructure, energy, mining, telecommunications, among others.