PPP: HoS commends Australian Govt. support to Nigeria
NAN-HE-15
PPP
By lucy Nwachukwu
Abuja, Aug. 28,2017 (NAN) The Head of Civil Service of the Federation, Mrs Winifred Oyo-Ita, has commended the Australian Government for its effort to support the development of Public Private Partnership (PPP) in Nigeria.
Oyo-Ita made the commendation during a three-day PPP capacity building programme by the Infrastructure Concession Regulatory Commission (ICRC) in conjunction with the Australian Government on Monday in Abuja.
The Head of Service was represented by the Permanent Secretary in charge of Special Duties, Mr Jide Odealer.
Oyo-Ita said ” the continued support of the Australian Government in building the capacity of public servants in Nigeria was commendable.
“We note with gratitude that the Australian Government has sponsored approximately 12 Nigerians on its Australia Awards Fellowship Programme on PPP.
“Public servants from the ICRC, Federal Ministry of Works, Federal Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment, Federal Ministry of Water Resources and National Metallurgical Development Centre have been beneficiaries of these training.
” We expect our good friends from Australia to keep assisting us with more PPP training as today’s workshop is courtesy of the Small Grant Programme of the Australian Government.
According to Oyo-Ita, the programme objectives is to develop the skills of participants to assess, plan, develop and implement PPPs.
She, however, urged all participants to seize the opportunity to acquire relevant skills that would improve their performance as PPP focal points and practitioners within their various MDAs.
“The President, Muhammadu Buhari and members of the public have very high expectations of you and will make more demands of you as you continue to provide public services in partnership with the private sector.
” We expect you to champion the president’s Infrastructure Revolution via PPP procurement, such that in at least 45 months time, the infrastructure narrative for Nigeria will have changed,” she said.
Oyo-Ita recalled that the Federal Government recently launched the “Strategy” of the Office of the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation.
She said the strategy had as its focus a culture change programme in the public service through the evolution of a crop of “Efficient, Productive, Incorruptible and Citizen Centered” (EPIC) public servants.
She said that public servants could only be EPIC compliant if they had required technical skills adequate for their present and future assignments.
“This is why I am very happy that we are having this event today focused on building capacity in the public service to develop and take to market bankable PPP projects,” she said.
She said Nigeria’s Economic Recovery and Growth Plan (2017-2020) noted the value of Nigeria’s infrastructure stock to represent only about 35 per cent of GDP.
“This is far below the level of peer emerging market countries, where the average is 70 per cent.
“To optimize the contribution of all these sectors, Nigeria needs to invest three trillion dollars in world class infrastructure delivery with PPP contracts that can have tenors of 30 years or more.
“The Federal Government cannot provide these resources all by itself; It will be leveraging private sector capital in a variety of ways such as PPP, special purpose vehicles, investment funds and various guaranty arrangements,” she said. (NAN)
LCN/IA
Edited by Idris Abdulrahman