FG reveals why it is pushing for more Public Private Partnerships in Nigeria

The Federal Government has declared that the current financial situation of Nigeria brought about by the global COVID-19 pandemic and dwindling revenue has made the shift to Public-Private Partnerships more important than before for Nigeria.

This was disclosed by Boss Mustapha, the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), at a two-day Africa Public Private Partnership Network (AP3N) Investment programme, with the theme, “Financing Africa’s Infrastructure through PPP” on Monday.

The government added that this has enabled the FG to encourage and support the strengthening of the framework for the Public-Private Partnership (PPP) policy in Nigeria.

What the SGF is saying

The SGF stated that a resilient and vibrant PPP was necessary in order to facilitate rapid infrastructure transformation on the continent, due to current economic challenges in Africa.

He said, “Hence, identifying the private sector development as an engine of sustainable structural transformation through PPPs is of critical importance to the continent.”

He added that stimulating a vibrant private sector on the continent and accelerating infrastructure development, some issues needed to be addressed to enable ease of doing business.

The SGF disclosed that this can be achieved by reducing risks and costs of doing business and by securing private property rights, improving governance, fighting corruption, simplifying regulations, and promoting competition.

“African governments must also resist pressure to erect trade barriers for intra-African trade to flourish. Currently, intra-African trade among African states is about 10 per cent of total exports.

“This is the lowest among other regions in the world. But we strongly believe that with the initiative of the African Continental Free Trade Agreement, the situation will drastically improve.

 “Also to improve access to finance and financial literacy, developing payment systems, and enhancing creditor rights, similarly, access to finance by the private sector is equally the very key, he said.

He added that the current financial situation of Nigeria occasioned by the global COVID-19 pandemic and dwindling revenue has made the shift to PPPs more compelling than before, which is why the Federal Government “continued to encourage and support the strengthening of the framework for Public-Private Partnership (PPP) policy in Nigeria”