The Minister for Transport, Dzifa Attivor has emphasized the need for private intervention since government’s budget alone cannot support its projects.
“We are all aware that government’s budget cannot accommodate the projects that we have so the advice is that we should seek private intervention.”
According to her, governmental projects would receive attention from private investors if it is packaged well.
Giving an instance to her argument, she stated that “ in the rail industry, although we have packaged the Eastern rail line, we have received no objections from the World Bank to engage a transaction advisor to package the projects properly so that it will be attractive for the private sector to come on board to invest.”
She opined that the only way for government to progress, is to engage in Public Private Partnership(PPP).
“PPP is the way forward and we are ready to do that. We are working on the new airport and it has to be on PPP.Some projects at the airport, the hotels, car parks, airline offices, will all have to be done on a PPP basis because we cannot put the projects on the budget,”said the Minister.
She also emphasized the need for stakeholders in the Transport Industry to support the partnership.
PPP is a contractual arrangement between a public entity and a private sector party, with clear agreement on shared objectives for the provision of public infrastructure and services traditionally provided by the public sector.