Africa-Press – Namibia. TO drive the economy of the country, local and regional leadership in the Oshana, Omusati, Ohangwena and Oshikoto regions were trained on how best to attract private partnerships in their respective localities by investing in infrastructure development without budget allocation.
The Ministry of Finance recently issued a directive for regional and local leaders not to budget for projects due to financial constraints the country is facing.
A two-day Public-Private Partnership (PPP) foundation training programme was hosted at Oshakati by the Ministry of Finance. The Ministry through its capacity building programme is responsible for facilitating the development and delivery of PPP training in order to build capacity.
Ministry of Finance Chief Economist of the PPP Directorate Salome Idhenga-Iipinge said the workshop aimed to reach out to policymakers and show them how a PPP is used for infrastructure development.
A PPP project does require them to have money in their budget but rather a written request submitted to the Ministry to tap from the private sector for project needs. A PPP does not override other procurement methods of the Ministry.
Oshana governor Elia Irimari said as part of economic recovery, PPPs have been identified as one of the strategic interventions which could usher the country into a new decade of inclusive growth and structural economic sectors in the green and blue economies, including energy agriculture and transportation.
“PPP has been identified as one of the alternative sources of financing and government has committed itself and taken a deliberate decision in exploring PPPs in the delivering of infrastructure and public services,” he said.
Irimari said in 2013 Cabinet approved the National PPP Policy, and gazetted the PPP Act in July 2017 that became operational from 1 December 2018. The PPP legislation framework was initiated to create an enabling environment for the implementation of public and private partnerships for infrastructure development and service delivery from start to end.
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