Some stakeholders have reiterated the importance of Public-Private Partnership(PPP) in ensuring sustainable growth and development in Africa.
The stakeholders in a statement by African Development Bank (AfDB), spoke at a seminar on PPP organised by the bank in Tunisia.
The statement said the seminar was held in collaboration with the Instance générale tunisienne de partenariat public-privé (IGPPP), and the Caisse des dépôts et consignations tunisienne.
The theme of the seminar is, ” Public-Private Partnerships in North Africa for sustainable and inclusive growth.”
The Tunisian Prime Minister, Ms Najla Boude, said there was need to diversify the sources of funding for public infrastructure projects, adding that the event provided an opportunity to take stock of PPPs in Africa, challenges and constraints, as well as success stories.
The AfDB Director for North Africa, Mohamed El-Azizi, said North Africa had immense potential in terms of infrastructure development.
“Given the investment and maintenance needs of infrastructure, PPPs offer a suitable approach to meeting the challenges facing African countries.
”However, we must recognise that PPPs are not without their shortcomings and pitfalls.
”Higher costs, complex contractual processes and potential monopolies are just some of the challenges we need to address diligently,” he warned.
The Director said for PPPs to be effective, there must be strong political will, a transparent, accountable and fairly competitive environment, as well as sound regulatory frameworks.
He said clear procurement procedures and effective contract management were also necessary for effective PPP.
Mr Ziad-Alexandre Hayek, chairman of the World Association of PPP Professional Units, said African countries had reached high levels of indebtedness and need to attract private investment to finance their infrastructure projects.
According to Hayek, the costs of preparing these projects, which are by definition complex, are high.
He said: ”Political leaders see PPPs as procurement rather than development instruments, while African financial markets are not sufficiently developed to meet financing needs.
”We therefore need to move to an integrated approach to de-risking PPP projects politically, financially and operationally,”
The Istanbul PPP Center of Excellence President, Eyup Aydin, said Turkey was a pioneer in using PPP in financing major infrastructure projects in the transport, energy and tourism sectors.
He said mobilisation of private-sector resources through PPPs to finance sustainable and inclusive infrastructure was key, owing to difficult economic conditions globally and high levels of public debt.
”In spite a legal framework and agencies dedicated to PPPs in Tunisia, Morocco, Egypt and Mauritania with Libya and Algeria also putting these in place, building up a portfolio of bankable PPP infrastructure projects has been slow despite the existence of a critical mass of projects,” he said.
