State to rely more on private sector to fund big projects

East African Community Cs Peter Munya(L) chat with MPs Richard Tongi(Nyaribarichache), William Kassait Kamket(Tiati) and Moses Lossonet (Eldama Ravine) after the Budget 2018-2019 reading at Parliament on Thursday 14/06/18 [Boniface Okendo,Standard]

The Government will be relying more on the private sector to execute some of its grand projects through public-private partnerships (PPP).

According to Treasury Cabinet Secretary Henry Rotich, in his Budget speech on Thursday, the State will be banking on these PPP arrangements to finance projects in health, tourism, water, solid waste, energy, ports, education, agriculture, housing, and manufacturing sectors.

Under a typical PPP arrangement, the Government provides land, infrastructure and other necessary physical amenities, while inviting private sector players to come in and finance the projects.

"To create a more robust framework for the implementation of PPP projects, the Government intends to revamp the PPP Unit with the aim of speeding up the pace of project preparatory activities, while being mindful of the need to ensure projects are well prepared, and all considerations required by law are taken into account. In this regard, we have completed a review of the PPP ecosystem and undertaken a legal audit of the PPP Act 2013,” Rotich said.

He also averred that the law would ensure that the bottleneck associated with PPP projects in the country, including Government bureaucracy and lethargy in land acquisition, are done away with.

Rotich announced that under the PPP programme, two road annuity projects had reached financial close, which means that they have already gotten willing investors who have pledged to put money in them.

Six projects

The projects are the Ngong-Kiserian-Isinya and Kajiado-Imaroro roads.

The Treasury also revealed that the Government has signed contracts for six other projects: the 1,050MW Lamu Coal Power Plant; three projects to deliver 105MW of geothermal power at Menengai (at 35MW each); the Wajir-Samatar and Rhamu-Mandera road annuity project; and the Kenyatta University students hostel project.

“Next week, I shall be launching the PPP disclosure portal, which is an online platform through which our stakeholders can access all Kenyan PPP data,” Rotich said.

“This is our commitment under the Access to Information Act, 2016, and a demonstration of our willingness to remain accountable to the people of Kenya for the efficient utilisation of their resources for their benefit,” he added.

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