2023-06-23 11:04:51
At the close of the work of the seminar on public-private partnership in North Africa for sustainable and inclusive growth, organized on June 15 and 16 in Tunis by the African Development Bank, Mike Salawou, Acting Director of the Department of Infrastructure and of urban development at the AfDB, gave messages and recommendations for the implementation of PPPs in Africa.
Mike Salawou, Acting Director of the Department of Infrastructure and Urban Development at the AfDB, presented, at the closing of the Seminar on public-private partnership in North Africa for sustainable and inclusive growth, organized on June 15 and 16 in Tunis by the bank, the challenges to be met in order to successfully implement PPPs in Africa. Thus, the official indicated that the presence of six countries at the seminar attests to the strong desire to collaborate and exchange experiences through a platform. “There is, for this purpose, a consensus on the need to perpetuate this kind of meetings. In this same direction, the AfDB is ready to support all countries”.
On another level, Salawou affirmed that there is a proven and reaffirmed political will for the adoption of PPPs for structuring infrastructure projects. “This translates into the establishment of instruments for implementation such as the legal framework, PPP units and public investment vehicles. But we must not forget that it is the countries which are arming themselves to face this new financing mechanism”, he recalled.
Returning to the legal framework of PPPs, the official insisted on the fact that the latter must evolve gradually to integrate the lessons learned from past experiences. “This framework is still insufficient for the effective promotion of PPP financing methods. The AfDB has thus put in place a strategic framework for PPPs to break the glass ceiling, and support countries during all stages of the PPP cycle and until the maturity of the projects”, he further underlined. .
An African PPP Development Fund
The Bank is also working on the creation of an African PPP Development Fund to support an enabling framework, build capacity and prepare projects.
“The Bank is also set to become a lead transaction advisor to help structure bankable PPP projects.
In this regard, it is important that local institutional investors and African commercial banks invest in infrastructure, especially through support for PPPs.
dem for the development institutions which play a critical role in stimulating their participation, in particular through the instruments of risk mitigation”, Salawou specified, while adding that although PPPs reduce in the short term the fiscal pressure for the countries , the advantage is essentially to accelerate the deployment of quality infrastructures. One of the other major challenges is the significant work that should be done to raise awareness and train administrations for a better understanding of PPPs.
Successful projects and lessons learned
According to Mike Salawou, sovereign guarantees are inevitable to support the first PPP projects in a country, especially in certain vital sectors such as water.
In this regard, the involvement of development institutions from the early stages of the project helps to mobilize the participation of commercial banks for large complex projects.
For their part, projects resulting from unsolicited offers sometimes offer a more innovative design and therefore make it possible to identify potential synergies with related projects.
Regarding the lessons that can be drawn from the African experience, the director of infrastructure and urban development of the bank affirmed that the institutional and legal framework of PPPs has undergone gradual changes in each of the countries. However, there is a reserve of significant PPP projects in the countries, in all sectors: water, transport, energy, telecommunications.
“Certainly, the finding is significant. But all the countries present have good experience with several projects already implemented or in preparation, even if the quality of the studies is sometimes still insufficient. This without forgetting the processing of unsolicited offers which is a bit complex. But sometimes, there is still a very beneficial element for countries in terms of innovation and budget optimization”.
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