CALABAR-ITU ROAD QUAGMIRE: THE PPP SOLUTION

BYDANIEL UGOCHUKWU ANUCHA

Case for the Project:• Calabar-Itu Road is the only direct land link between Cross

River State and Akwa Ibom State in the South South geopolitical zone in Nigeria. • It is a trunk A road constructed in the 70s to link Odukpani

Local Government Area in Cross River State to Itu Local Government Area in Akwa Ibom State.• People who used the road at its early service life have

attested to the good quality of construction evident in the road at that time.• It sometime takes as much as four hours to travel from Uyo-

Itu Junction in Akwa Ibom State to Odukupani-Calabar Junction in Cross River State, a distance of less than 75kM.

Case for the Project (Cont’d):• The road can be said to have completed its useful life, having

opened to vehicular traffic for about 45years. • Political representatives of the people at the federal executive

council only have to use the road once in four years, during election campaigns. At such times, the road form part of the numerous campaign promises which have never been fulfilled.

Project Route Map

Ownership of the Project:

• Nigeria is a multicultural and multi-ethnic society where politics play vital role in infrastructural development. It is a known fact that whereas major cities in the South-South and South-East geopolitical zones of the country cannot boast of serviceable roads, cities in the North have countless number of well paved multi-lane expressways with functioning street lights. • It is therefore not surprising that important as this road look to

the people of Cross River State and Akwa Ibom State, the federal government through the Infrastructure Concession Regulatory Commission did not deem the road important enough to be included among its pipeline projects on its website (see http://www.icrc.gov.ng).

Ownership of the Project (Cont’d):

• The onus is on Cross River State Government which has greater part of the road within her borders to synergise with Akwa Ibom State to assume ownership of the road, together they can present a common front in a concession arrangement for the Project. In view of the political forces that influence the choice of infrastructure projects to be undertaken by the federal government in any part of the country, waiting for the federal government to initiate the reconstruction of the road may have to be forever.

Description and Scope of the Expected Solution:• The proposed road should be a dual carriageway each with

two traffic lanes, raised median with crash resistant concrete barrier and paved shoulder.• The bridges along the Cross River side of the road, which is

about three in number, need to be reconstructed to be able to cope with the anticipated vehicular traffic after reconstruction of the road.• The construction should include passenger motor parks,

container terminals/trailer parks, mechanic workshops and retail shops at Odukapni, Okurikang and Itu, along the route.

The Public Private Partnership Solution:

• Public Private Partnership is a long-term contract between a private party and a government entity, for providing a public asset or service, in which the private party bears significant risk and management responsibility, and remuneration is linked to performance.• This has proven to be the best way of achieving efficient

infrastructure development and management in both developed and developing economies, as it leverages on private sector expertise, diligence, accountability and efficiency in the delivery of public services.

The Public Private Partnership Solution (Cont’d):• To ensure the success of PPP, the government must be

sincere and transparent in the entire procurement process. In addition, it must seek to partner with the right investors who share in the vision of the state, with good and verifiable track records. The government needs to set up strong institutions backed by appropriate legislations to represent its interest in any PPP arrangement.• The Cross River State Government, which is expected to

synergise with Akwa Ibom State government and assume ownership of the Project, already has an agency, the Bureau of Public Private Partnership set up by law of the State House of Assembly in August 2010.

The Public Private Partnership Solution (Cont’d):

• The agency has the deputy governor as its chairman thus enhancing investors’ confidence in relationship with the agency, whose mission is to facilitate social and economic infrastructural development in the State through Public-Private Partnership.

CONCLUSION:

• The way out of this particular infrastructure problem is the PPP as the government does not appear to have the funds to finance the project through the public procurement system, going by the economic reality across the nation. • The Build Maintain and Operate PPP model will be most ideal

as the investor will have to retain ownership of the road, while maintaining and collecting tolls on it till the government is able to buy back the completed facility or the investor has made reasonable return on its investment, whichever comes first.• The society will be willing to pay reasonable toll in as much as

the road is constructed to the best standard and properly maintained by the would-be concessionaire throughout the concession period. Stakeholder acceptability is high as no one is happy with the present situation of the road.

THANK YOU !!!

BACKGROUND OF THE PRESENTATION

• This is a Digital Artifact prepared by the author as Final Project for the Massive Open Online Course organized by the World Bank Group, in collaboration with the Korean Ministry of Strategy and Finance. The course title is Bridging the Infrastructure Gap: How can Public-Private Partnerships Help Deliver Better Services.• The road discussed under this project is one of the numerous

degraded roads in Nigeria which has suffered cruel neglect by successive administrations in the oil rich Country.• The author is a Civil Engineer and works with the foremost

indigenous Civil Engineering Consultancy Firm in the Country.