NAN-HE-14
PPP
By Lucy Nwachukwu
Abuja, Aug. 28 , 2017(NAN)The Acting Director-General of Infrastructure Concession Regulatory Commission (ICRC), Mr Chidi Izuwah said the Public Private Partnership (PPP) contracts in Nigeria would be made open to the public.
Izuwah made this known on Monday during a PPP workshop for Ministries Departments and Agencies (MDAs) by the ICRC in conjunction with the Australian Government in Abuja.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that ICRC is saddled with the responsibility of regulating PPP in the country. .
He said that a PPP disclosure web portal would soon be launched by the Federal Government that would enable all PPP contracts in the country to be open to the public.
He said that this would allow Nigerians who had access to the Internet to become PPP contract compliant administrators.
Izuwah assured Nigerians that government’s approach to PPPs would be governed by transparency and consistency of policies and regulation.
He said that this approach was being adopted to encourage more investors.
“As you are aware, our nation has a huge infrastructure deficit which we must resolve to achieve industrial and inclusive GDP growth to create a better future for all Nigerians.
“Appropriately well designed and conceptualised world class infrastructure that can be delivered through PPP and should be accelerated in order for us to achieve GDP growth for national development.
“We are currently in the process of putting in place the national PPP capacity building programme for the entire federal civil service, state and local government.
“We are also considering adopting and implementing the World Bank PPP certification programme as base qualification criteria for PPP practitioners in Nigeria.
“We are engaging widely with the World Bank, African Capacity Building Foundation, the International Finance Corporation; we also hope to engage the Australian Government in this direction,’’ Izuwah said.
The Australian High Commissioner to Nigeria, Mr Paul Lehmann, expressed the readiness of his country to partner with ICRC and the Nigerian government on PPP development.
Lehmann said that the ongoing workshop was coincidentally an area of importance for the Australian government to grow its collective knowledge on what worked in PPP funding arrangements.
“In the long run, we are looking at ways we can better meet the deficit that exist in many areas of infrastructure not just in Nigeria but around the world.
“Every country has challenges in this area and we are looking to access the best expertise to look at the ways that case studies worked, where they have worked and where they have not.
“What are the lessons that are being learned, so that we can apply those in the Nigerian context.”
“For us in Australia, it’s always about partnership and we are also interested in the lessons that we can learn from the Nigerian experience,” he said. (NAN)
NUP/LCN/DO/GY
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Edited by David Onilede/Grace Yussuf