PPP: National Assembly may review ICRC Act ―Lasun Yussuff

FOR government to fast-track and deliver quality infrastructure to the Nigerian populace, there is the need for the National Assembly to undertake a review of the Infrastructure Concession Regulatory Commission (ICRC) Act (2005).

This was the submission of the Deputy Speaker, House of Representatives, Rt Honourable Sulaimom Lasun Yussuff, while delivering a lecture titled: “The gains and losses of Public Private Partnership in Infrastructure Development” at a programme organised by the Nigerian Institution of Mechanical Engineers, Ibadan chapter at the Assembly Hall, North Campus, The Polytechnic Ibadan, on Friday.

Yussuff, noted that Public Private Partnership(PPP) as a model for delivering public infrastructural projects is a relatively new phenomenon which has been fully embraced in many climes including Nigeria.

“The enactment of the ICRC Act by the National Assembly in 2005 provided the legal basis for introduction of the PPP model in Nigeria known law.

“By that very decision, the National Assembly clearly demonstrated her patriotic commitment to partner with the government to fast-track and deliver quality infrastructure to the Nigerian populace.”

He posited that in the light of the drawbacks, associated with the operations of the PPP, the National Assembly may be compelled to undertake a review of the ICRC Act (2005) with a view to strengthening the law and ensuring greater collaboration between the private sector operators and the government.

“Government cannot provide all the infrastructure that are required to make lives more meaningful to the people. The government also cannot effectively maintain all existing structures all by itself alone.

“Thus, the provision and maintenance of infrastructures impose enormous financial burdens on the government.  Hence, the recourse to the PPP model.”