A Review of Public-Private Partnership for Building and Infrastructure Procurement in Nigeria

Abstract

The shortcomings of the traditional method of procuring buildings and infrastructure projects led to the adoption of the Public-Private Partnership (PPP) in Nigeria. This study undertakes a review of the practice of PPP with a view to explicating the key issues that are associated with its use in the procurement of public buildings and infrastructure projects. A wide range of secondary source material including reports, policy statement, journal articles and textbooks were collected for analysis. The analysis conducted reveals that the procurement process within government Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) is cumbersome; one important source of this cumbersomeness arises from the funding arrangement. In this regard, MDAs were seen to accord less priority in approving counterpart funds for PPP projects under their control. The evidence indicate that the process of approving PPP budgets are in no way different from other capital projects of less priority within the MDAs. As a consequence, PPP projects are experiencing undue bureaucratic bottlenecks and delays. To address this concern, it is recommended that MDAs should prioritize the funding for PPP projects and equally fast tract the process of its approvals. This can potentially eliminate the bottlenecks and delays that are currently affecting the procurement of buildings and infrastructure through PPP. Overall, therefore, though PPP is found to be poorly practiced among MDAs, it remains a scheme that can be employed to address the procurement problems experienced in Nigerian public bureaus.