W’Bank, FG to partner on Abuja infrastructure development

From Fred Itua, Abuja

The Acting Director-General Infrastructure Concession Regulatory Commission (ICRC),  Mr Chidi Izuwa, has disclosed that the World Bank was waiting for the success of the Katampe District Public-Private-Partnership (PPP) engineering infrastructure project as a model it can spread round the world. Katampe is one of the new districts in the nation’s capital, Abuja.

Izuwa made this revelation in his remark at the inauguration of the Inter-Ministerial Implementation Committee on the Report of the Audit of the Structure and Financing of the PPP Project for the Development of Engineering Infrastructure at Katampe District, Phase 2, of Abuja.

He said: “It is because of the uniqueness of Katampe PPP project, especially the land value capture that the World Bank is still waiting for the success of the project as a model which it can spread to the world.”

Izuwa counselled that the PPP project is the only option for meeting the infrastructure deficit in the FCT given that only 11 of the 72 districts in the FCT have full infrastructure. He noted that it was only by this kind of creative and innovative policies being embarked upon by the FCT Minister that Abuja can become the tourism and investment hub of Africa.

The ICRC boss noted that FCT hosts one of the most successful PPP projects in Nigeria, as demonstrated by the Garki Hospital PPP initiative which is one of its kind, as it involve the health sector. He said if FCT can make PPP work, it would be easy for the states of the Federation to copy.

In his keynote address at the event, the FCT Minister, Malam Muhammad Musa Bello, said “For us at the FCT administration, this is a project we want to succeed simply because it will open the way for us to be able to replicate it in similar projects within the city.

He expressed dismay that a very laudable projects faced excruciating problems because of poor packaging and implementation.

In doing this, the Minister noted, the administration was taking into account the fact that the past system of developing the city based on budgetary allocation is no longer sustainable, simply because the funds are not there.

He said: “Already, we are talking of Phase 5 of the city, whereas, except for Phase 1, there has been no significant development of infrastructure in Phases 2, 3 and, indeed, Phase 4.”

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