Governors Attend 4th Istanbul PPP Week to Foster Ways to Improve Lives
Five Governors of Adamawa Ekiti, Kwara, Imo and Yobe State, Ahmadu Umaru Fintiri .Kayode Fayemi, Abdurrahman Abdurrazaq, Emeka Ihedioha and Mala Buni respectively at the presentations session of the 4th Istanbul Public Private Partnership [PPP] Week.
The technical sessions took place over the last two days.
The 4th Istanbul PPP Week is being attended by participats from 33 countries.
Dr Eyub Vural Aydin, Chairman of Istanbul Public Private Partnership Centre of Excellence [PPPCoE] and Nail Olpak, President of Foreign Economic Relations Board made introductory remarks, underscoring the central role of PPP in project financing and the need to draw from a wide range of experiences.
They argued that the public sector does not – and will not – have the resources to finance transformative projects needed to improve the people’s living conditions.
The way to go, therefore, is for the public and private sectors to team up together to do what each could not do on its own.
Dr Aydin said in Turkey, they have since embraced PPP as an effective way of harnessing private capital for funding projects together with the government. He said over the last 15 years, more than 100 PPP projects were executed at over 100 billion USD.
The Head of PPP Division of the Islamic Development Bank [USDB] Nouman Siddiqi also speaks about what the bank looks at in funding PPP projects in member countries.
His remarks focused on project preparation, including feasibility studies and capacity building.
The Chairman of the Nigerian Governors’ Forum and Ekiti State Governor, Kayode Fayemi speaks on Nigerians effort at putting the regulatory frameworks and capacities needed for an effective PPP environment.
He said more Nigerian state governments are looking to private capital to finance road construction and healthcare projects, among others, adding that at the sub-national level, governors are grappling with the question of sovereign guarantees which some potential PPP partners are looking for.
On the whole, however, he said Nigeria is ripe for investments in agriculture, renewal energy, telecoms etc. He said so much progress has been made in making the country an ideal destination for foreign investments.
