New Telegraph

As Lagos leverages on PPP for mega infrastructural projects

The Office of Public- Private Partnerships (PPP) in Lagos State has disclosed that the Governor Babajide Sanwo- Olu’s administration plans to commission key infrastructural projects in the state. The projects are expected to open the state up to prospective investors in line with its mega city agenda. TAIWO HASSAN reports

 

Indeed, the Office of the Public-Private Partnerships (PPP) was established in 2008 as a mechanism for the Lagos State Government to procure and implement public infrastructure and/or services using the resources and expertise of the private sector.

Lagos State is one of the first states in Nigeria to set up an office of the PPP, with an enabling law enacted in 2011 to strengthen its core functions of procuring and implementing public infrastructure and/or services using the resources and expertise of the private sector.

Since then, the State’s PPP office has been evolving in the areas of fast tracking infrastructural projects that are projecting Lagos State as the investment destination hub for yearning investors, who are willing to do businesses within the state, in line with its mega city agenda and trade facilitation.

In moving forward, the Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu’s administration has further consolidated the State’s PPP scheme by developing it to a substantial level via key constructed transactions that were peculiar and unique to the state’s own markets and environment by venturing into key state- of-the-art projects designed to turn around Lagos State infrastructure.

PPP Models

Indeed, the Office of the Public-Private Partnerships (PPP) has various models for PPPs within the state, such as BOT, JV (Joint Venture) agreement, concession agreement and others in various key sectors of the economy.

4th Mainland Bridge

At the PPP Lagos media roundtable discussion with the Special Adviser to the Lagos State Governor on Public-Private Partnerships (PPP), Mr. Ope George, to discuss the achievements of PPP Lagos and future plans as the partnership exists between Lagos State government and other private sectors to attract investors, he shed more light on the state government’s ongoing construction of the fourth mainland bridge, a 38kilometre project, expected to gulp $3 billion private sector funding on completion under the PPP scheme. George said that the state government is set to announce the preferred bidder for the project before year-end.

According to him, finally, about three bidders have been short-listed out of the over 50 expression of interest (EOI) from bidders when the process started initially. He noted that the prospective bidders were given same level playing fields during the six stages of the process before arriving at only three of them.

Ope George, SA to the Governor on PPP

The SA to the Governor on PPP noted that the process for the 4th main land bridge was very transparent, adding that government was encouraged by the number of companies that submitted EOIs for the project worldwide. He listed some of the companies that expressed interest in the project as: Julius Berger, China Civil Engineering Construction Corporation (CCECC), Kyeryong Construction Company, Pythgoras Holdings and CRCCCI Nigeria.

Others are China State Construction and Engineering Corporation Nigeria Ltd, BUA International Ltd, China Jiangxi International Economic and Technical Cooperation Company Ltd, among others.

George said: “We have over 50 expression of interest from bidders when we started this process and we went from EOI to request for qualification to a request for proposals and at request for proposals, we split it into two stages.

We are now at the second stage of the request for proposals and we are down from initially from over 50 to three bidders now. Of those three bidders, we are confident that by the end of the year, we will be able to identify who the preferred bidder is to go ahead and construct it.” Particularly, the 4th mainland bridge project had been in the pipeline for over 30 years. On completion, it is meant to further ease gridlock in the state.

Lagos Rail Mass Transit

While speaking on the Lagos Rail Mass Transit, the SA to the Governor on PPP disclosed at the event that the Lagos State Government under the Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu-led administration has concluded plans to begin the testing of trains on the Blue Line of the Lagos Rail Mass Transit towards the year end as finishing touches were now being done on the rail tracks following the arrivals of the trains locally.

Specifically, the Blue line is about 28kilometres from Okokomaiko to Marina, a 15 four-car BMU CNR Dalian, which is a electricity multiple unit line. George stated that the Governor Babajide Sanwo- Olu’s administration is already making progress on the railway lines, specifically on the Lagos Rail Mass Transit, that is dedicated to boost railway transportation in the state, with the two lines; the Blue line and the red line.

According to him, the administration is glad to say in the media now that the trains have arrived in country and is hoping that by the end of the year, testing will start and Lagosians can see trains moving up and down in the metropolitan city of Lagos.

George said: “It is heart warming to say that we are close to the finishing line. If you are driving along the Lagos metropolis, you can see the railway infrastructure. The stations for the railway has been built, been completed, the trains have arrived. So, it’s a process.

And the plan is that towards the end of this year because of it is a process that goes from construction, testing to operations. We have gone through the process.

So, at the end of this year, we hope to see trains being tested on the railway lines that’s moving from point A to point B. At that point in time, after you see signalisation and all sorts of testing and after this is done, operations will start towards some time next year.

By the end of this year, the trains are there, tracks are ready. So, it’s just to complete the finishing touches and they can start to test because we want to make sure that all the tests are done properly before passengers traffic starts.

So, we are very optimistic and proud about it. Aside the Blue line, the Red line as well.” Hospitals Speaking further on the Lagos PPP scheme, the Lagos PPP boss explained that the scheme is also viable in the state’s healthcare industry with a collaboration being done with LASUTH on creation of a 9,000 bed spaces for patients in the state to decongest stifling lack of bed spaces for the sick ones.

He said: “We also have other PPPs we do in some key sectors. We are currently having something with LASUTH. For instance, we are creating over 9,000 bed spaces. It is a project that has started. We are hoping to commission some of them by January next year to boost bed space availability for the sick ones.”

Lekki Airport While speaking on the airport, a 3,500 hectares of land in the Eastern parts of Lagos on the Lekki Epe axis of Lagos State, the SA to the Governor on PPP explained that the Lagos State government is hoping by next year, to start work on the development of airport in Lekki.

According to him, the state government has received approval nod from the Federal Government to go ahead with the airport construction. This, according to him, will further ease traffic congestion at Murtala Muhammad Airport in Ikeja.

George noted that Lekki-Epe is one of the fastest growing corridors in West Africa, with potential investments that are already changing the face of the state’s economy positively. His words: ”

As I said, there is quite a lot of transactions in the various projects we are looking at and we are hoping that by next year, we should be hoping to start work on the development of airport in Lekki.

It’s another 3,500 hectares of land and it is something that has been in the pipeline and we have suddenly gotten an approval from the Federal Government to go ahead and start the development of the airport.

So, it is something that we are hoping that next year, we can make progress on. We believe that that area of Lekki-Epe is one of the fastest growing corridors in West Africa. “You have the Dangote Refinery there which is 650,000bpd. You have the Lekki Seaport which is opened up there.

So, we feel that putting an airport at this point in time is something that will help relieve the congestion we have at Murtala Muhammad Airport in Ikeja and also the development of the city.”

Airport approvals

In his reaction to the Airport’s approvals, the Lagos PPP boss said: “We just recently got an approval from the Federal Government to go and start construction of the airport.

Now, the construction is a wide range and we still have to started initial planning. So, we have an initial master plan of what we believe the airport should look like. “The State government has invested a lot in getting the master plan done. There are also some studies we need to do in terms of the typography of areas, the optic designs and studies which we need to do which is what we are starting now.”

He continued: “So, we don’t have a preferred bidder for the airport yet. We are doing a study and once we get the study, we can take it to the market, because we find out that project like this, if you don’t do the proper groundwork, what we take to the market is difficult, which is why a lot of projects suffer prematurely gestation periods.

“So we will ensure that we do the work, similar to what we have done on the 4th mainland bridge, which has been taking us some time now. We’ve done the work, we’ve done the studies.

“So when we are going to engage the private sector, we can show them we know what we are talking about and this is what we want and the type of airport we want, the type of bridge we want. “We can give them specifics and they can now come back and bid from the kinds of information we have given them.”

Lagos as 4th largest economy

The SA to the Governor on PPP revealed that the construction of the multi-billion dollar infrastructural projects have not come easy for the state, saying that this is even putting pressure on the state for doing what a country as a whole would have done, but doing it as a state. “…And as you can imagine, it’s not easy to build an airport you know.

So, it’s a process. And one of the challenges we have has a state is that, we are the fourth largest economy in Africa. So, in a lot of times, we get compared to countries which is not a problem and I think also, we are the victim of our success. Lagos gets compare to Ghana, gets compared to Egypt, Rwanda and these are all nationals.

So, you really find sub-national taking on the amounts of infrastructure projects we take on in the state. The rail for instance, you will struggle to find any sub-national in Africa that has built rail projects, similar to airport and similar to everything.”

Election

On why the Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu’s administration is still not relenting and relaxing on its oars towards the State’s infrastructure development amidst the ongoing political campaigns for the 2023 general election, the SA to the Governor on PPP said the fears over the 2023 general election affecting the life span of the state’s infrastructure projects, has no cause for alarm as the projects were not construed based on elections or politics rather than for the future of Lagos State’s infrastructure development.

He noted. “So, in terms of the election, we don’t feel it would inevitably have any effect on it because a lot of the work has been done, it has taken us awhile. We’ve done the studies. We’ve done the works.

So, it shouldn’t impact on what we are trying to do and we find out that transactions like this it’s a separate funds, aside election.

It’s a transaction that has procurement process which is being transparent irrespective of what happened in the election, it’s a process that has to go through and not the process that has to be interfere because of election.”

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