NAN-HE-12
Capacity
By Lucy Nwachukwu
Abuja, Aug. 25, 2017 (NAN) The Infrastructure Concession Regulatory Commission (ICRC) said it would collaborate with the African Capacity Building Foundation (ACBF) to attract external funding that would support Public Private Partnerships(PPPs) in the country.
The Director-General of ICRC, Mr Chidi Izuwa, who disclosed this in a statement on Friday in Abuja, said capacity building was one critical mandate of the ICRC.
Izuwa said that lack of PPP technical capacity had been recognised as a binding constraint limiting the availability of well prepared bankable PPP projects across many jurisdictions including Nigeria.
He said that effective PPP capacity building yielded immediate benefits; adding that funding was critical to achieving the objectives.
The benefits of effective PPP include; increased private sector participation in the delivery of critical infrastructure services via PPP arrangements.
It raises the awareness and knowledge of PPPs amongst all stakeholders, while facilitating the dissemination of experiences related to successful PPP project design.
It also aids implementation for easy adaptation and acceptance especially user pay principles critical to financial viability of PPP arrangements.
Izuwa said that his recent meeting with the Executive Secretary of ACBF, Prof. Emmanuel Nnadozie was to derive ways of ensuring funds for facilitating PPPs in the country.
He said that the commission would seek the guidance and inspiration of the SGF and Head of Service of the Federation in applying for the very competitive ACBF capacity building grant.
“We have big national ambitions to launch a revolutionary national PPP capacity building programme for the public, private sectors and for Nigerians and we will make a big application.
“We will give it our best shot to ensure that we focus on the vital few critical requirements and not the trivial many; and we must change Nigeria’s infrastructure narrative via effective PPPs,’’ he said. (NAN)
LCN/GY
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Edited by Grace Yussuf