Expert seek end to ‘political interference’ in PPPs to bridge infrastructure gap

…..as Abuja Conclave strategise on African regional development 

Nigeria’s quest to bridge its widening infrastructure deficit hinges on the government’s ability to insulate Public-Private Partnerships (PPPs) from political meddling, industry experts warned at the Abuja Conclave on Wednesday.

My-ACE China, Chief Executive Officer of Mayor of Housing Limited, noted that the persistent failure of critical projects is tied to a “public-political partnership” model that prioritises mediocrity over execution. He argued that while Nigeria possesses a wealth of strategies, a widening execution gap remains the primary bottleneck.

“A functional PPP is a public-private partnership. The non-functional version is a public-political partnership,” China said. “Any PPP devoid of politics delivers. We have tested this, and the results are clear.”

He stressed that the global community is no longer interested in “explanations of Africa” but is awaiting the “manifestation of Africa” through tangible outcomes. The Abuja Conclave, he noted, was designed to trigger immediate action via indigenous technology and strategic incentives rather than traditional communiqués.

Addressing the scourge of building collapses, China blamed weakened regulatory institutions compromised by bureaucracy. He proposed a shift toward private-sector-led regulation, where professionals with proven track records assume responsibility for quality control.

“If a professional knows their brand and years of reputation are on the line, they will not approve substandard work,” he added, urging the private sector to lead with pilot sustainable housing projects rather than waiting for constitutional reforms.

Bryan Robin, Convener of the Abuja Conclave, described the initiative as a strategic move to transition Africa from being a “permanent rule-taker” to a global rule-shaper. The session, which drew participants from Liberia, Kenya, Ghana, and Nigeria, focused on questioning deep-seated assumptions about the continent’s economy and governance.

He said, “Things are shifting and Africa cannot continue to be a permanent rule-taker. Things have got to be different because if you don’t participate in shaping the structure of the world, how things work, in shaping systems, you will have no choice than to live according to the dictates and ideas of those who shaped it for you. So this is a working room. It’s a closed-door strategic working session.

“Many people applied. But we were very careful to make sure that if you are coming into the room, you understand what it is about. And you are willing to work hard to question assumptions, challenge assumptions, and push for clarity. Because with clarity about our geopolitics, we are clear about how government should work, we are clear about how the health system should work, how democracy should work, how our economy should work, we’ll have a better chance of actually creating solutions to most of the compelling issues we face. So this is what makes this different. It is not a summit.”

Uche Uwaleke, professor of Capital Markets at the Nassarawa State University, said that among others, the conclave present an avenue for experts to brainstorm and come up with solutions on how to drive development in the various sectors of Africa’s economy.

Uwaleke whose team focused on mobilizing capital for business enterprises said that SMEs only require long-term capital to scale. He added that for Africa to develop, there is a need to connect available capital from where it is sitting to where it is needed.

“We are discussing about how to strengthen financial intermediation, long-term financial intermediation, mobilizing capital from the surplus units and taking them to the deficit units. So it’s about how to grow enterprises in Africa. So the focus is actually on Africa.

“And you realize that it’s not a question of whether the capital is there or not. There are people that argue that the capital is actually there. But the concern is how do we connect this capital. And that’s why I talked about intermediation. How do we connect them to the enterprises, the SMEs that need them.

“For Africa, many of them, of course for safety reasons, are used to buy government securities. So how can we channel the capital that we have in Africa? Institutional funds, for example. How can we channel them to grow enterprises, to grow SMEs, which we all know is the engine of growth,” he added.