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The fact that the private sector drives several global economies as continuous participation of government in the running of means of production and distribution has proven too risky has been globally acknowledged. In view of the above, several states in the country, including Lagos, Cross River and other first-rate states, have demonstrated that it is only the involvement of private sector that is the way forward. The government of Kogi State has been making efforts to fashion policy framework and legal apparatus, as well as necessary climatic and environmental needs necessary for making the state investment hub of the country as it would encourage both domestic and international investors to the state. One year into his role as DG of BPPP in Kogi State, Mr. Bob Achanya recently sat with YABAGAI MOHAMMED to give a stewardship of his office, the core objectives, achievements and challenges faced by the Bureau as part of celebration of one year anniversary. Read on…
Background…
My name is Bob Achanya, I am the Director General of Bureau for Public Private Partnership (BPP) in Kogi State.
An insight into the Bureau
Kogi is implementing the Private Sector Participation (PSP) policy for the first time during the GYB administration through the landmark establishment of the State Bureau for Public Private Partnerships (B – P3).
The Bureau is mandated under the Kogi State Public Private Partnership (PPP) Law (2014), to implement the administration epoch-making Public Private Partnership funding paradigm that will expectedly contribute about 40% of total investment requirement to fund the private and public sector streams of the administration Development Blueprint, between 2016 – 2019.
After being on ground in the state for the past 12 years, the issue of Bureau for Public Private Partnership has been on the front burner in two previous administrations. But to be fair, the immediate past governor, Capt. Idrsi Wada, came close to it by ensuring the PPP Bill was successfully signed into law, even though it was not fully implemented while he was in the saddle. But thank God for the kind of background that the present administration is coming from. As a private sector person who understands their critical roles in enhancing the economic sector of every state, the Yahaya Bello administration came and put the issue straight on the jacket by setting up the Bureau.
Having already known the challenges, the Bureau went straight to work by setting up necessary structures. The Bureau is presently operating from a temporary location in the New Block of the SSG’s Office and is presently structured and operating under five Departments including Legal, Risk Management, Communication and Information Technology, Infrastructure and Contracts as well as Administration and Finance.
As a strategic implementation approach, the Bureau has established through the Head of Service, Heads of Ministries, Departments and Agencies, and Local Government Department. Desk Offices with competent posting of over 70% Desk Officers has been achieved already.
The Bureau is looking forward to the formal Launch of the State PPP Pipeline projects across the sectors. A full list of statutorily designated State PPP infrastructure and Assets will be published by the end of second quarter of this year, 2017.
Desk Officers are the liaisons between the MDAs and Bureau for PPP-flavored investment proposals from Line MDAs. Generally, PPP Investment proposals are also expected from the Office of HE, the State Economic and Investment Team, the Bureau and other Sources.
Desk Officers are also expected across the LGCs as the Bureau looks to domesticating the State PPP Law to that all-important tier of government in the medium to long term. This action will revolutionize the LGs development drive and ensure PSP and LG PPPs with its attendant benefits, under Bureau’s strict guidance.
There are however, contingent responsibilities across board to make the administration’s widely applauded policy succeed through the principle of common but differentiated responsibilities exhibited through adherence to the State PPP Procurement Governance and Public Procurement Laws.
We are also working towards ensuring that government establishes the BPPP Board to be chaired by the Deputy Governor, in accordance with the laws establishing the body.
Inter-MDA synergy.
Establishment of Bureau’s six (6) Directorate architecture achieved namely, ICT, Finance & Risk Management, Administration & Accounts, Infrastructure and Development, Legal, Inspection and Compliance as well as Procurements and Technical. The Bureau has also been able to establish Desk Offices across Ministries Departments & other Agencies, attained 65% posting by State and Federal MDAs of critical Desk Officers, sensitized and built capacities through outreach for Desk Officers, Permanent Secretaries and Directors, Hon. Commissioners and other Political Appointees in the state.
Also, Local Government, Education, Transport, Tourism and Agricultural sectors, as they relate to PPP have been strategically developed to an advanced stage to be able to cut cost and build in succession, institutions that can help the state sustain both its private and public sector need to galvanize the economy.
We are further working with a pool of consultants whose terms are flexible and affordable for us, in view of budgetary constraints and economic realities faced presently in the country. These consultants help us formulate policies and programmes that would launch the state into the economic giant that it should be in not too distant future.
Also, as a private sector styled organization, we try as much as possible to adhere to global best practices. In fact, that is our core value. Our vision is that at the end of the day, we should be able to engineer that organization that would be a pride to Kogi State in the business world. We are already gaining the interests of investors, we want to gain more of it for the benefits and pride of all the people of the state in the nearest future. I must assure you, we are getting there.
How does the Bureau function operationally?
At the moment, we rely on the public service to provide us with technical input for the purpose of capacity building and necessary project execution for the time being. That has helped us cut cost and built a sustainable institution that would have the elements of both the public and the private sectors.
However, from experience, we have decided to work closely with the office of the Head of Service to provide us with necessary skills, even though there is dearth of what we want in the state civil service at the moment. We are however collaborating, as I have earlier alluded to, with other essential service capacity sectors, like the MDAs, to be able to access the services we require through the Desk Officers.
We also collaborate with Federal Ministries in areas where we know we cannot get the requisite expertise to assist us. For instance, we are working on collaboration with the National Inland Waterways Authority (NIWA) on areas that relate to that and also with Federal Ministry of Minerals Development. We do this knowing that whatever we do here, the line ministries are the implementing agencies, hence the need to carry them along in our scheme of things.
We also tap on the fresh university graduates and those from other higher institutions that are on their compulsory National Youth Service Corps (NYSC). The aim is that we can school them on the essentials of private sector initiatives and make them future advocates of private sector participation in the nation’s economic development.
Highlight some of your operations so far
We have also successfully done a peer review visit to Kaduna, Ekiti States respectively. As a result, Kogi State is now highly rated as a PPP participating states across the nation and several parts of the world. Other in-Country and offshore visits will be achieved, hopefull, this year, 2017.
First State open Government to Business Sector consultative meeting held with formal presentation of the Governor Yahaya Bello Development Blueprint to stakeholders and other relevant groups for support. This has led to Kogi State Business and Innovation Desk which established to provide the platform for innovation to business and entrepreneurial opportunities.
I must not fail to mention the Governor Yahaya Bello New Direction Mobile Trade outlets that are at implementation stage with fine tuning that are ongoing with relevant state and non-state actors on operational issues before deployment by the second quarter of this year. Sector PPP strategy for Agriculture, Education, Environment, Culture and Tourism among others, are at 70% completion stages for necessary input from the sectors during planned program roundtables. These documents would be available on our website at www.kogibp3.com soon for public comments and input.
What are some of the challenges that the Bureau faces?
As I told you earlier, the Bureau, being a new establishment has faced several impediments. But as they say, “Challenges are part of life” and so, we trudge on. Some of our challenges include, and not limited to; lack of enough office space for the enormous workload facing the Bureau. Logistics is also a problem. We need vehicles that would help convey our staff to and from sites and for engagements outside the state because we need to travel to places for important assignments that would aid us in the task of bringing the needed investment opportunities to the state.
Others include; undue elongation of the PPP Procurement cycle, capacity gap for risk and legal analytic responsibilities, exclusion of the PPP Bureau in PPP critical transactions, problematic access to PPP Agreements for statutory warehousing, non-compliance with the PPP Law by MDAs on the pretext of PPP encroaching on “spheres of influence”, clarification of Jurisdictional space for PSP application in view of growing delineation of PPP and non PPP POSSIBLE areas, continued and growing appetite by MDAs for the conventional public spending even where public sector comparator indicator favour Private Sector Partnership, among others.
Future Targets with the Bureau
My target is that in no distant time, successful PPPs involve finite and structural processes, procedures and guidelines throughout the project life cycle that must be processed and timely, too. I hope that PPPs are able to bring much needed investment/financing for supporting the attainment of the objectives of the State development Blueprint, in the initiation, planning, procurement and execution of the PPPs.
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