‘Public Private Partnership is important to sustainable development of communities’

Public Private Partnership (PPP) has been advocated as key to ensuring infrastructural development within communities in the face of rising demands due to increasing population which has led to the need to find means of ensuring that amenities goes round the people.

The need to increase capacity through collaborations with private organizations and individuals will help in ensuring that the effect of governance gets to the people in adequate measures as government cannot on its own meet every need of the people as a result of rise in population and the needs of people.

The Caretaker Chairman of Akinyele South Local Council Development Area, Hon. Olumide Alli, made this declaration during the week while declaring open the first stage of a series of Public Private Partnership in his council area, adding that there is a huge infrastructural vacuum that needs to be filled but cannot be met with public funds.

According to him, the challenge of inadequate public funds which is a national issue at present makes it difficult to do enough for the people and to overcome this challenge, there is a dire need for alternative means of delivering infrastructural facilities to the people.

“At present, the needs of the people cannot be left solely to what is available to government, hence, the only sustaining way to finance all the infrastructural requirements various communities is through public-private partnership with organizations domiciled in the community and well meaning citizens of the state.

“As part of our vision to take Akinyele South Local Council Development Area to greater heights and take the dividends of democracy to all nooks and crannies of the council area, we have engaged in partnership with well meaning individuals and organizations to bring the required development to communities in the council area.

“The partnership arrangement is to encourage people with like minds and organizations, assist the government by helping fill the vacuum being felt by the people and encourage that the efforts of governance be augmented to cut across every sector in the community,” Alli said.

The caretaker chairman explained further that the first project in the series of partnership is on roads refurbishing and maintenance which was coordinated through a partnership between the Hon. Alli led leadership at the Akinyele South LCDA and Velocity Nigeria under the leadership of Mr Ademola Egbinola

The first stage of the project commenced on Wednesday with the maintenance and refurbishment of a section of Orogun Expressway to facilitate ease of vehicular movement, reduce avoidable traffic congestion and rate of accidents on the road caused by portholes

Speaking on the partnership, Hon Alli stated that government alone cannot provide all the needs of the people and in a bid to ensure that the vision of the All Progressive Congress in terms of infrastructural development extends to the council, adding that he will continue to work with well meaning people in the society to make things work.

He further appealed to organizations within the council and the state at large, not to forget their corporate social responsibilities as a way of giving back to the society