The Infrastructure Concession Regulatory Commission (ICRC), has said that it would soon commence an audit of all Public Private Partnership (PPP) projects to ascertain their performance and ensure that such projects are insured as statutorily stipulated in its establishment Act 2005.
The commission’s Director-General, Dr. Jobson Ewalefoh, gave this hint when he paid a courtesy visit to the Minister of Interior, Dr. Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo, on Tuesday.
During the visit, the Director-General presented the Minister with the PPP Icon award and assured him that the Commission was already working on evaluating the performance of all PPP projects as well as ensure that assets of the government under PPPs were covered by insurance policy.
Ewalefoh told Tunji-Ojo that the Commission would continue to train PPP Desk Officers in MDAs and urged the ministry not to relent in adopting PPP projects or seek clarifications where necessary.
The Director-General clarified: “Talking about the audit, we are already putting in place mechanisms to start auditing the performance of PPP agreements that were signed in the past: this is not aimed at condemning or terminating them but to optimize them in the interest of the Nation.
“When it comes to the issue of insurance, of course it is a matter of law for all national assets, both hard and soft infrastructure that are concessioned through PPP to be insured.
“That is one area we are looking into and would very soon issue a directive that all assets under PPP must, in compliance with the law, be insured”, he added.
Ewalefoh, who thanked the Minister for being at the forefront of utilizing PPPs in delivering key infrastructure needs, pointed out that his choice of the Ministry for his first official visit was in view of his performance and his adoption of PPP as a vehicle of realizing his mandate
He explained: “From the record of the Commission, the total amount of investment that has come into this ministry in your time as Minister in the last one year is over $500,000,000 (five hundred million dollars). So, we cannot thank you enough as a champion of PPP.”
“Therefore, we felt it was in our interest to come and say thank you for being our PPP Ambassador and a PPP Champion, and we are using this opportunity to tell the World that the Government of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has not cancelled any signed PPP contract under the custody of the ICRC, showing respect for the sanctity of Contracts and to tell investors that their investment is safe”, the Director-General added.
Commenting at the forum, the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry, Dr. Magdalene Ajani, congratulated the ICPC boss on his appointment and commended the Minster for what he had been doing.
She said: “He is a sticker for making things happen positively for Nigeria, making sure that the appropriation is not stressed but rather look at the best avenues to have PPP arrangements for most of our activities. I thank you Sir for the great leadership.”
In his remarks, the Minister commended Ewalefoh, describing his appointment as a demonstration of the intention of the government to diversify the economy and allow the private sector to play its role, adding that his qualification and experience were unquestionable.
Tunji-Ojo hinted of government’s plans to efficiently leverage PPPs to make key agencies in the Ministry self-reliant and exit them from government’s budget line.
He said: “We believe that a lot of our agencies should be off budget and we are working towards that, because the resources to government are not even there: this is a country of 230 million people with an increasing population, therefore we have to be innovative in terms of financing.
“We know that the resources of government are limited but the private sector has a lot more resources, all we need is to create the environment and give them the confidence to invest and Nigeria will be a better place for us”, the minister added
According to him, the ministry has leveraged on the huge resources of the private sector, adding that “everything we have done in NIS today are majorly PPPs, we can’t ask government for millions of dollars, see the data centre, we have the e-gate, as we speak, we have the Advanced Passenger Information System, the Gap Management System is almost completed, a lot of other PPPs are in the pipeline.”
He stressed that PPPs were not only about leveraging funds but also expertise for enhanced efficiency and productivity.
Tunji-Ojo assured the ICPC Director-General of the readiness of the ministry to continue to collaborate with the commission, adding that the commission has always made key technical inputs to the ministry’s projects and fine-tuning them for better implementation.
