By NEXTER
The Nasarawa State Government has trained management staff in Ministries, Department and Agencies on tools to implement climate-smart Public Private Partnership (PPP) projects, to address infrastructure deficit and boost economy.
The capacity building workshop was anchored by Nasarawa Investment and Development Agency (NASIDA) in collaboration with United Kingdom Nigeria Infrastructure Advisory Facility (UKNIAF).
Speaking at the event on Friday in Lafia, Mr Ibrahim Abdullahi, Managing Director, NASIDA, noted that the importance of PPP to infrastructural development could not be overemphasised, saying that Nasarawa remained a shining example amongst sub nationals in the West African region.
Abdullahi said that the essence of PPP in delivering public good was to optimise non-performing or underperforming assets of government in order to provide greater value to both government and the people.
He appreciated the partnership with UKNIAF on the projects delivery framework, which he said, aligned with the objective of Nasarawa State government to deliver infrastructure projects with catalytic effect on its ambition to grow the economy.
“UKNIAF had supported us to deliver critical reforms, develop contingent liability framework, and PPP manual, which is one of the most effective and most robust by a sub national in Nigeria.
“Our PPP framework looks at transactions and projects as candidates of the policies; how we can improve on policies from lesson learnt from transactions.
“We have done a significant amount of transactions more than any other state in Nigeria, and if we are to sustain the delivery of PPPs in this magnitude, there is need to build our capacity continuously,” he said.
Abdullahi, therefore, urged the participants to cascade the knowledge gained down for others in their various MDAs to become conversant with the principles and skills required to deliver sustainable PPPs across all sectors of the economy.
Also speaking, Mr Mike Imafido, a PPP Specialist with UKNIAF, said the participants were exposed to a new PPP tool known as 360 Degree Project Screening and Assessment Tool (360 degree PSAT).
He explained that the tool was developed to support institutions screen and prepare infrastructure projects.
“Outputs from the tool is a pipeline of projects that are bankable. It allows policy makers to easily make a decision about whether to commit further resources on a project or not.
“Ultimately, it allows public institutions to ensure value for money on projects.” Imafidor said.
He pointed out that workshop aims to improve the delivery of climate-smart PPP infrastructure projects in Nasarawa State.
“We looked at how to navigate the constraints in delivering such projects, how to cascade the learnings from other projects to be able to scale and deliver quick, as well as how to prepare bankable climate-smart infrastructure projects.
“We provided practical guidance on how Nasarawa State can advance its pipeline of PPP projects, specifically in the areas of Agriculture, Energy and Technology in order to attract financing, ” he said.
