PPP panacea for infrastructure advancement says Danbatta – ITREALMS

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The Public-Private Partnership (PPP) has been described as the panacea for resilient infrastructure development for the advancement of digital economy, reports ITREALMS.

EVC of NCC, Prof. Umar Garba Danbatta

This was the position taken by the Executive Vice Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), Prof. Umar Garba Danbatta, in a keynote at a panel session during a two-day 2021 virtual conference and exhibition on Information Communication Technology & Telecommunications (ICTEL) organised by the Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI), on Tuesday, July 27, this year with overarching theme: ‘Disruptions, Resilience and Governance in Digital Economy.’
Danbatta whose sessions examined how Public Private Collaboration (PPC), which is often referred to as Public Private Partnership (PPP), noted that it could be leveraged to develop resilient infrastructure that will advance our digital ecosystem.

Creating an enduring collaboration between the private and public sector for the development of our digital ecosystem, he said is a more specialised and familiar concept than PPC in discussions of this kind.

Danbatta pointed out that the concept of PPP, has become one of the commonly used model of collaboration among stakeholders to fast track socio-economic development whether at the global, regional and national levels.

According to EVC Danbatta, the role of public-private partnership in infrastructure development in Nigeria cannot be over emphasised because an adequate, robust and functioning infrastructure is the bedrock of communal and societal development.

“Therefore, to meet future challenges, our industries and infrastructure must be upgraded by evolving an enduring PPP model that services all the sectors of the economy,” he said.

Objectively, Danbatta said, the high level of infrastructure deficit and its attendant effect on socio-economic development in Nigeria explains government’s concern and search for an alternative means of providing infrastructure for the teeming population.

In 2005, he noted that the Federal Government established the Infrastructure Concession Regulatory Commission (ICRC) with a clear objective to accelerate investment in national infrastructure through private sector funding; and to assist the Federal Government of Nigeria and its Ministries, Departments, and Agencies (MDAs) to establish and implement effective Public Private Partnerships (PPP) processes.

“It is gratifying that state governments have also adopted variants of PPP models in order to tackle the challenge of infrastructure in their respective jurisdictions,” he said.

As said by him, “if the telecom and ICT sector is the real ‘Infrastructure of infrastructure’ as it is often referred to because of its impact, efficiency and effectiveness on the growth of other sectors, it stands to reason, that the telecom sector is the most important sphere PPP should be adopted.

“Interestingly, a 2012 World Bank report already documented how public-private partnership (PPP) projects have been used to provide broadband access nationally, regionally, or in rural areas to improve broadband access to unserved and underserved locations,” he said.

EVC of NCC, Prof. Danbatta

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