Ghana’s Public Private Partnership law to be passed December 2012
Ghana’s huge infrastructure deficit which requires a sustained spending of at least $1.5 billion per annum could soon be addressed with the introduction of a Public Private Partnership (PPP) initiative. However, the law that gives this initiative legal backing is soon to be passed.
“We are quite hopeful that it should be passed by the end of the year,” Mrs Magdalene Apenteng, Director of the Public Investment Division, of the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning disclosed.
She made this revelation at a PPP sensitisation workshop organised for media personnel in Accra on Thursday July 19, 2012. The PPP initiative is expected to enable government provide better infrastructure and services through the use of private sector financial, human and technical resources for national development.
“We have had three stakeholder consultations and we are trying to finalize the initial draft of the law. Once it is finalized we would have three other stakeholder consultations and we would seek cabinet approval and go to parliament for the final approval,” she added.
Parliament would rise soon. Expressing worry over possible impediments, Mrs Apenteng said “the impediment might be parliament rising earlier and not being there throughout in the year, otherwise we are hopeful that it should be finished, passed by the end of the year.”
In a speech read on his behalf, Mr Enoch Hemans Cobbinah, the Chief Director of MOFEP mentioned that, the PPP law would provide the added confidence to local and international investors who would want to participate in the programme.
“The enactment of the PPP law will provide legal safeguard and this is more than sufficient guarantee for continuity. The need for this is to give comfort to investors.” Mr Paul Victor Obeng, the Chairman of the National Development Planning Commission has said.
PPP is a contractual arrangement between a public entity and a private sector party with clear model agreement on shared objectives for the provision of public infrastructure and services.
It is to provide a means of leveraging public assets and funds with a private sector resources from local and international markets to accelerate needed investments in infrastructure and services.
The PPP is to increase the availability of public infrastructure and services and improve service quality and efficiency of projects.
The PPP is also to encourage and promote indigenous Ghanaian private sector participation in the delivery of public infrastructure and services.
By Pascal Kelvin Kudiabor