ICRC to resolve stalled FEC-approved PPP projects

Efforts are ongoing by the Infrastructure Concession Regulatory Commission (ICRC) to resolve all public-private partnership (PPP) projects that have been approved by the Federal Executive Council (FEC) but are yet to commence.

Director General of the Commission, Dr Jobson Oseodion Ewalefoh, disclosed this in Abuja when he paid a courtesy visit to the Minister of Marine and Blue Economy, Adegboyega Oyetola.

He informed Oyetola that some of the pioneer PPP projects approved as far back as 2006, were port projects under the aegis of the ministry. Citing an example of a dry port project that was approved by FEC in 2006 but is yet to commence, the DG said that the Commission was moving to re-evaluate such PPPs and reach a reasonable conclusion.

He, therefore, informed the minister that the commission had come to ascertain the challenges with any stalled project under the ministry and proffer solutions to the challenges,

“We are here to discuss with your ministry; what is the potential that we have, and to know the issues with some of the concessions that have been made before. We need to brainstorm to move things faster for our country.

“As I said, we have streamlined our processes to ensure that PPP projects are now accelerated and PPP transactions are completed in record time. He said that while the commission was striving to commence new PPP projects, it was also working to effectively optimize the existing ones.

He added that the commission will also evaluate the financial capabilities of potential concessionaires along with their business cases to forestall a situation where project execution is delayed. He urged the minister to partner with the commission to re-evaluate all PPP projects that have been approved by FEC for more than one year, but are yet to commence.

The DG however clarified that the essence of the policy was not to discourage investors but to ensure that only investors with capacity would bid for PPP projects so that the time and resources of the government would be saved.

In his remark, the Minister of Marine and Blue Economy, while congratulating the DG on his appointment, corroborated that most of the projects that had stalled were due to a lack of access to funds. The minister said that the ministry had written to the concessionaires and had reached the conclusion that the funds were not there.

“The solution to that is to have only very serious investors that have access to funds and not just a good business case,” he said. He assured the DG of the full support of the ministry in accelerating PPP in the blue economy, adding that there were already a couple of new projects, which will be sent to the ICRC to begin the PPP process.