Public Private
Partnerships (PPPs) contracts will no longer be shrouded in secrecy as
the Federal Government has launched a framework to ensure that the
general public has access to PPP contract information...
The PPP Disclosure Framework is online-based and hosted on the ICRC web portal sponsored to be accessed by the general public.
The
project was executed by the Infrastructure Concession Regulatory
Commission (ICRC) in partnership with the World Bank after consultations
from the Ministries, Departments and Agencies, the PPP financiers, the
concessionaires and civil society organisations.
Speaking at the public launch, at
the weekend, the Vice President of Nigeria, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo, said
the Federal Government plans to use Public Private Partnership (PPP) as a
means to provide basic infrastructure to the people.
Represented by the Minister of
State, Power, Works and Housing, Mr Suleiman Hassan, the vice president
said the PPP Disclosure web portal encourages proactive disclosure of
contract agreements, the technical specifications and other information
between the government and its contractors on PPP projects.
He explained that the portal will
make available to citizens and relevant stakeholders, information such
as project title, type, government agency responsible, name of private
concessionaire, contract sum, and regular progress report on the
projects.
On the disclosure portal, he urged
ministries department and agencies of the Federal Government to
proactively release and upload all information regarding the PPP
contracts they have entered into.
Osinbajo said the provision of high
quality infrastructure remains a huge stumbling block to the country’s
economic growth hence the need to seek private sector intervention.
“Infrastructure is very vital in the
lives of our people. It will not only serve as a catalyst for economic
growth but would also accelerate employment generation and alleviate
poverty. This administration is committed to exploring and using any
scheme necessary especially PPPs to help achieve the level of
infrastructure development needed in the country,” he said.
Also speaking at the occasion, the
acting Director-General, Infrastructure Concession Regulatory Commission
(ICRC), Mr Chide Izuwah, said the country currently had 51 PPP
contracts valued at about 3.2 trillion dollars.
He said the figure represents the
total private capital investment stake in the provision of public
infrastructure adding the ICRC also has 77 PPP bankable projects in
various stages of development.
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