Representatives of the African Development Bank, governments, development finance institutions, the private sector and professional associations joined a September 8 workshop to discuss how the AfDB can strengthen support for public-private partnerships and channel greater investment toward economic and social infrastructure.
The event titled, ‘Designing the African Development Bank’s PPP Framework,’ was hosted virtually by the bank.
The workshop took place against the backdrop of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and the ensuing economic slowdown, which has sharpened an already urgent need for investment.
Five African countries (South Africa, Morocco, Nigeria, Egypt and Ghana) accounted for over 50 per cent of all successful PPP activities from 2008 to 2018.
Several other countries have multiple PPPs in the pipeline (Burkina Faso has 20 and Botswana, eight).
“Before the COVID-19 pandemic, African infrastructure was already struggling to structure projects tailored for the private sector and at the same time achieving value for money for the public sector including affordability for users.
“It is therefore imperative that hybrid solutions such as PPPs must be seen and promoted as a way of building back better, stronger, greener, by clawing back private capital to infrastructure while creating much needed fiscal room for governments to address multiple other demands including building health systems’ resiliency,” AfDB’s Vice President, Solomon Quaynor, said in his opening remarks.
According to AfDB, Africa’s infrastructure financing needs are up to $170bn a year by 2025, with an estimated financing gap of up to $68bn to $108bn a year.
Amadou Oumarou, Director for the bank’s Infrastructure and Urban Development department presented several rationales for AfDB’s effort to develop a PPP framework, including its ‘Ten-Year Strategy’ (2013-2022) and a recommendation from the bank’s independent evaluation unit to scale up PPP interventions.
Webinar participants expressed a desire for the bank to play an expanded role in supporting PPP development in Africa by strengthening policy and regulatory frameworks, building government capacity; project structuring and advisory services; and the provision of financing instruments such as de-risking, guarantees, credit enhancements, and local currency financing.
“Countries need to learn from each other’s achievements and mistakes, they need to have standard documents and checklists that will guide institutions in these countries through the PPP lifecycle,” said Shoubhik Ganguly of Rebel Group International, which is partnering AfDB to develop the framework.
Mike Salawou, Division Manager; Infrastructure Partnerships, added, “Policy dialogue is something the bank places a lot of premium on, and that has proven to be very efficient in informing decision-making.”
