Public-private partnership: A catalyst to transportation infrastructure and economic development. Way forward.

Abstract

Public Private Partnership is a long term agreement between a government agency and a private partner for the delivery of good infrastructural development with the aim to come out with a reasonable output result and with both party sharing the financial risks, responsibilities and rewards inherent in the delivery of the projects. This paper critically examine areas of the transport sector that Public Private Partnership initiatives can significantly act as catalyst is in the provision of transport infrastructures such as roads and highways, light railways, ports, airports. dams, bridges and tunnels. Others are electricity power, oil and gas pipelines, water nd sanitation, telecommunication and indeed the entire spectrum of infrastructure services. A pilot PPPs project has already been championed in Nigeria with the Lekki-Epe expressway. The project has faced bottlenecks due to the roadblocks that have been encountered with stakeholders. However, in it lies the learning we need to help facilitate subsequent projects. Concessions in the transport sector should not be looked at just from the lens of building roads and bridges but rather from the view point of peripheral gains that can be achieved from such project. Therefore the Federal Government should fully support the Infrastructure Concession Regulatory Commission (ICRC) as to regulate PPP infrastructure arrangement in he country concerning transport infrastructure development because without it (transport) here is no economic development.