Housing & PPP Infrastructures Strategic Intervention Framework

This paper addressed the mechanisms for developing nations. It used three elements to provide a strategic framework for intervention in national PPP Housing development and finance. They include;

1.        Stakeholder Engagements improve citizen's commitment and ownership of the projects. Through the stakeholders' engagement, you seek inputs from different parts of society. It enhances needs assessment, as well as improve buy-in of the general public. To ensure successful delivery of projects, you begin with stakeholder engagements. First, seek an audience with your employer to understand his/her priorities. Hold a meeting with internal administrators to understand the difficulties in previous attempts at infrastructure projects implementation. Hold village parliament(s) to get further inputs and data from sectorial audience. Analyse the gathered data, audit the current process to improve workflow. Encourage workers and paint a future with hope. During stakeholders' engagement, evangelise your vision to gain maximum support from your subordinates.

2.        State of Emergency: Ensure a state of emergency is declared on the selected key areas and seek government approval to act expeditiously. Democratise infrastructure ownership. Encourage the coming back of experts in the diaspora to support the efforts. Set up a volunteering agency focused on infrastructures development. – from data gathering, project conception, development, finance, execution and implementation. These charities will provide technical support to governments.

 After the WW2, the UK government encouraged the formation of charities as the engine for development. Over the past 70 years, charities have evolved, through various reforms, charities provide support on enhancing societal welfare and citizens' wellbeing in the UK.

 After the great depression of 1930, John Keynes (a British economist) advocated fiscal and monetary policies to stimulate economic growth. He opined that total spending in the economy has effects on output, employment, and inflation. He advocated, increased government expenditures and lower taxes to stimulate demand and pulled the global economy out of depression and recession. When a nation spends on affordable housing, it stimulates the economy because of its multiplier effects.

We used three key infrastructure areas - education, housing and transport as our touchpoints:

(a) Education: Use the Village PPP model to engage local communities, donor agencies, and all tiers of governments to develop education through a cooperative framework. Build and repairs schools with local supports from local communities under special arrangements. Train teachers, enhance pay, revitalise Teachers Training Colleges, Technical Colleges and improve City & Guilds technical professionals. Create reward systems which celebrate meritocracy and creativity.

(b) Housing: Create an enabling environment to empower local experts to deliver affordable houses using indigenous technologies and materials. Seek approval to convert idle assets to economic assets. Reform the Mortgage sector in line with global policies to enhance accessibility. Work collaboratively with international and local agencies on the use of local raw materials. Conduct yearly Housing-Challenge competition on the use of local raw materials nationwide - it promotes inward-looking and creates jobs. Assist winners to mass-produce, with multiplier effects across the nation. Within a few years, there will be more houses; crime will reduce with accelerated economic recovery. It is important to stress that in typical African society, there is no homelessness. We should improve our indigenous methods and combine them with modern technology to deliver more affordable houses. Give tax rebates to research funders on the use of local raw materials for affordable housing. Turn villages and towns into building sites – this will reduce urban migration.

(c) Transport - Use a PPP model to improve transport and mobility infrastructures. Employ more youths in communities with projects undertakings.

Transport Key Highlights

1.   Transport facilitates mass production and globalisation.

2.   Transport enhances specialisation of economic activities through comparative advantage.

3.   Transport improves economic development, socio inequality and reduces social exclusion.

4.   An understanding of where, why and how movement occurs are essential to economic growth.

5.   An understanding of economic, social and environmental consequences of Transport infrastructures is critical to growth.

According to Margaret Grieco and Jeff Turner; transport inequality contributes to about 44% of maternal mortality in women’s death at childbirth. They argued that maternal mortality should be used as a measure of transport success in Africa. The primary means of preventing maternal deaths is to provide rapid access to emergency care, treatment of haemorrhages, infections, hypertension and obstructed labour.

History of Transport in Nigeria: In 1906, the first motorable road linking Ibadan and Oyo was constructed. According to CBN (2003), road development in Nigeria dates back to 1925, when the then colonial administration established the Road Board. As of 1951; 1,782km road was surfaced. In 1980, estimated road coverage in Nigeria was 200,000km.

Efforts at privatising Nigerian Railway Corporation, Seaport and Airports have yielded marginal dividends. However, these yields do not match the increasing demand by population explosion. According to Dangote in 2018, the state of bad roads costs Dangote Cement Plc about N27B.

Over 80% of social-economic activities are carried out through road transport in Nigeria. According to the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA), in 2017, there were 14 million passengers traffic with 222,413 flights less than 10% of transport volume. The National Bureau of Statistics and Federal Road Safety Corps estimated that the number of vehicles in Nigeria is 12 million, with 248 million passengers traffic annually.

Road Infrastructure has developed to the extent that its predictability can be scientifically-calculated in advanced economies. Investments in road Infrastructures make it possible to create an ecosystem for data collection and mining - which helps for accurate management, planning, and expansion. Furthermore, transport contributes to about 47% of business costs in Nigeria. According to Punch in 2017, out of the 2018 budget of N8.6T; N555.9B budgeted for Power, Works and Housing Ministry.

Causes And Impacts of Road Infrastructures: Causes of the unmotorable roads include inferior and substandard materials, poor design, lack of adequate supervision, weak maintenance, use of substandard contractors, systematic failure, implementation framework and human errors. Secondary causes include deliberate destruction by persons and road users or contractors, driving habits, poor policing and non-compliance with traffic rules.

According to Who Health Organisation in 2017, the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development Goals includes an ambitious target to reduce road traffic deaths and injuries by 50% in 2020.

To accentuate the development of any nation and her people, road Infrastructure is critical. A good road infrastructure leads to economic prosperity and the wellbeing of citizens. Many experts posit there is a linear relationship between wellbeing and Transport Infrastructure Projects (TIP) Investments.

Some have argued that road is a derived utility, which requires more budgetary allocations and investments from governments. While this argument may be plausible, however, there is no empirical evidence to suggest that more government allocations necessarily lead to improved Road Infrastructures. The author contends that it has become imperative to seek alternative solutions that will yield maximum benefits for the highest number.

Developing Road Infrastructure with debts as a policy sounds logical. However, loan mismatch or misuse; future generations bear the transfer burden of debt. While direct investment reduces the overall debt portfolio; the repayment of investment will come from functional Roads under a PPP Scheme, if well implemented. Because it imposes obligations on stakeholders to ensure that the project is delivered as planned to guarantee a return on investment and recoup capital invested.

Our recommendations include the following;

a)  Use of direct investments

b)  Conduct due diligence before project execution and loan agreement

c)  Democratise roads infrastructures

d)  Improve road policing, education and maintenance through new schemes 

3.        Conduct Continuous Improvement Process: To ensure sustainability, provide training for workers, develop a framework to attract best hands in the diaspora to support the emergency projects and attract global participation. With continuous performance measurement and accountability, the nation will bounce back within the shortest time possible.

Ensure there are monthly performance reviews, make adjustments where necessary and monitor progress. Include advocacy and publication of progress as a feedback mechanism on a monthly or quarterly basis.

We live in a time of great opportunities, challenges and complexities; to join the 'League of Nations' in prosperity index, we need a paradigm shift in Infrastructure delivery.

When a nation works, all the citizens look ahead with hope. And, hope is the elixir of life.