Poor management of project stakeholders is a major challenge in Nigeria’s PPP procurement. According to (Adeniyi et al, 2011), most early PPP projects in Nigeria, had cases of stakeholder agitations ranging from land disputes, environmental concerns among others, with some of them ending in court actions and litigations against the government. As argued by (Adetola et al., 2016), the issue of end-user stakeholders’ agitation in Nigeria may be attributed to a number of factors including poor effort on the part of the government in encouraging policy enlightenment to citizens prior to projects’ commencement. Ibem (2010) bemoaned the relative apathy of many Nigerian administrators towards engaging citizens on projects designed to benefit them. This poor communication often results in series of petitions, protests, and even riots in many host communities. In providing a way forward for Nigeria’s PPP, Abdullahi (2010) emphasized the need for all effective management of all stakeholders including host local communities. Stakehoders role should be clarified in order to avoid duplication of functions (Akintoye et al., 2011) policy confusion and mixed signals. There should also be clarity of rules and regulations through the government stating clearly the guidelines, consequence of character, expectations (Babatunde et al., 2016) and notice of principles should in case of any misunderstanding. Communication analysis with end-user
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stakeholders must be incorporated deliberately at the beginning of any PPP programme. The end-user stakeholder should also be properly managed through the flow of information (Olusola et al., 2012) and awareness which are fundamental requirements for any successful PPP initiatives. Generally, the study of stakeholder gives a clear knowlegde of value and interests of end-user, attitudes and nature. The private investors should be given the opportunity to enlighten the end-users (public) on how PPP can facilitate the infrastructure growth through user pay charges. This will be on long term arrangement between the government and the private party.
Chapter Summary
Public Private Partnership (PPP) is a partnership of the public and private sectors in the financing and development of public infrastructure and facilities (roads). The global financial crisis in recent times has brought the unwavering interest in PPP in Nigeria. This occurrence has been seen generally by many countries as the new cost-effective paradigm. Countries like United Kingdom, United State of America, India, and China etc. have benefitted a lot from the provision of infrastructure by the private sector through PPP. The key strategy mechanism that is being used to transform public services is Public Finance Initiative/Public Private Partnership (PFI/PP). Many PFI projects having capital structure of 90% to 10% Debt equity ratio has also being financed, since its inception. There are various forms (models) of PFI/PPP procurements. These comprised Build Operate Transfer (BOT), which is the most popular globally. Other models in PPP include Design, Build Finance and Operate (DBFO), Design, Build Operate (DBO), Design, Bid Build (DBB), Build Own Operate (BOO) etc. Many more procurement methods have gained considerable attention from private corporations, government, and academics are as follows: DCMF (Design, Construct, Maintain, and Finance), LROT (Lease, Renovate, Operate, and Transfer), BOOR (Build, Own, Operate, and Remove), BLTM (Build, Lease, Transfer, and Maintain), and BLT (Build, Lease, and Transfer). DBFOOMT (Design, Build, Finance, Own, Operate, Maintain, Transfer), DBFOT (Design, Build, Finance, Operate, Transfer). The governments are progressively turning to the private sector as a supplementary source in order to meet the funding gap on infrastructure. The provisions of
facilities through private financing have different methodologies. PPP mobilizes private entity more efficiently in terms of successful delivery of service arrangements.
The understanding of PPP in Nigeria has not been encouraging. Historically Nigeria has not had consistent investment in infrastructural facilities. The global economic meltdown has also resulted in tremendous pressures leading to rising costs of developing projects, which cannot be completely met only by the government without the involvement of private investors. This led to the Nigerian governments developing majority of infrastructural projects through PPPs. Presently, the provision of infrastructural facilities has improved with the adoption of PPP which created more involvement of the private sector in delivering large-scale and multifaceted infrastructure projects across Nigeria. The partnership of government and the private sectors in the construction of public infrastructure and services is established on the concept that government has no business in construction of some infrastructure and services in order to ensure value for money. Nigeria still has overwhelming challenges with the delivery of essential public infrastructural facilities and basic amenities. This suggests a significant task ahead of Nigeria in terms of infrastructural challenges. The federal government came up with an institutional framework that distributes particular roles and responsibility to several bodies and how the bodies will be operating amicably with the government agencies. With all the various infrastructural challenges that confronted Nigeria, the popularity of PPP is however on the rise, especially in the area of roads construction and aviation industry. These physical infrastructural facilities were tipped as important enablers galvanising social service delivery, industrial growth and facilitating the movement of persons and goods. Under these conditions, the potential benefits of PPP in roads and aviation sector unlock opportunities to maximize economic returns. With the advent of PPP, several projects were delivered and commissioned in Lagos Nigeria. The four major concessions projects that were considered in this study are; Muritala Muhammed Airport 2 (MMA2); Lekki-Epe toll road; Apakun Muritala Muhammed toll road and Lagos-Ibadan expressway respectively. The study adopted two PPP toll road projects as case study viz-a-viz; Lekki- Epe toll road and Muritala Muhammed Apakun toll road. Documentary appraiasal identifying projects history and delivery were discussed. Five challenges confronting PPP infrastructural deliveries were identified from this study. This includes, transparency and Competitive Procurement Process; lengthy Procurement Timelines; political instability
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and rancour; corruption and poor management of stakeholders. Managing contract is very important for effective running of PPP contracts, particularly where issues of disputes, claims, planning and variations are effectively dealt with in a way to ensure the performance of PPP is not affected. The effective management of conflict when encountered could provide a good enabling environment for all end-user stakeholders in order make the PPP project active.