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Isaac Anumihe, Abuja
The Federal Government has allocated over N1,322.92 trillion for capital expenditure to top 12 Ministries Departments and Agencies (MDAs). This was even as it admitted that it was responsible for the failure of the Public Private Partnership (PPP) projects in Nigeria.
The MDAs include; Federal Ministries of Works and Housing (N259.2 billion); Power (N127.67 billion); Transportation (N123.07 billion); Education (N162.7 billion), Defence, (99.87 billion); Health (N90.98 billion); Agriculture (N79.79 billion); Humanitarian Affairs Disaster Management and Social Development (N45.45 billion); Aviation (N53.85 billion); Water Resources (78.34 billion); Industry, Trade and Investment (N41,34 billion) and Science and Technology (N37.55 billion).
Speaking during the 2020 budget breakdown in Abuja, Minister of Finance Budget and National Planning, Mrs. Zainab Ahmed, explained that the PPP projects failed in Nigeria because government didn’t prepare the projects well enough, a situation that discourages investors from keying into the projects.
“It is true that PPPs have not succeeded in Nigeria. We have done quite a lot but very few have succeeded and the reason is because we are not preparing the projects well enough. And we noticed that gap. We have development partners to support MDAs that have this eligible PPP projects t in packaging these projects. That will enhance our ability to attract private sector investment into those projects.
The weakest link we have is the preparation of the PPP projects,” she said.
However, she added that the government provided special economic zones under the Ministry of Industry Trade and Investment as well as the Presidential Development Fund which is domiciled under the National Investment Authority (NSIA).
“On the PPP, what is in the budget that I can directly refer you to is the special economic zone under the Ministry of Industry Trade and Investment and also the provision that we have the Presidential Development Fund which currently lies on a PPP basis by the National Sovereign Investment Authority (NSIA).
But in the infrastructure ministries, there are several projects that are suitable for PPP.
I know that on an annual basis, they actually extract projects that are suitable for PPP and give it to Infrastructure Concession Regulatory Commission (ICRC),” she said. Similarly, the government projected that about N237 billion from looted funds would used to fund the budget
“On the recovery of looted funds, if you look at the budget we have a provision of N237 billion provided for as a financing item in the budget. This is our projection of how much would be recovered as looted funds. This will be funds that will now be available to fund the budget” the minister explained.
