The Director General, Infrastructure Concession Regulatory Commission (ICRC), Mr Aminu Diko has stressed the need for MDAs to subject their public private partnership endeavours to the regulatory oversight of the Commission to ensure the projects attract potential private investors. Mr. Diko made this known when he received the Vice Chancellor, and members of the management team of the University of Abuja who paid a familiarization visit to the Commission.

According to the DG, ICRC, “it is only in an atmosphere of transparency and competitiveness and where the best private sector proponent emerges the preferred bidder that the PPP objectives can be achieved. He further said that in the circumstances the country has found itself, it has no option than to partner with the private sector to provide needed infrastructure services. “The beauty of PPP is that the private sector comes with scarce capital and innovation and has the added ability to deliver on time and according to specifications”.

Speaking earlier, the Vice Chancellor of the University of Abuja, Professor Michael Adikwu, while explaining the basis for the visit, disclosed that the University management is seeking to embark on PPP arrangements with private institutions to develop projects like hostels and ancillary services that would benefit the students and the university community. He said the vast expanse of land within the university’s territory is yearning for development, and the private sector could key into this.

In the meantime both parties had agreed to the setting up of a joint team to determine which projects would benefit from public-private partnership.