PPPC earmarks 7 projects for PPP

Public Private Partnership Commission (PPPC), the sole authority for the implementation of Public Private Partnerships (PPPs), says it has targeted seven new PPP projects after completing four.

The almost ready projects under PPP are the public university accommodation project intended to add about 10 000 units in the country’s public universities.

The initial phase of the project, whose signing ceremony is schedule to take place in a week’s time, has been subcontracted to M&M and Old Mutual Malawi.

In an interview on Monday, PPPC chief executive officer Jimmy Lipunga said another project that is almost done is the Malawi Cargo Centre Limited (MCCL) in Dar es Salaam  in Tanzania.

He said with the new arrangement, MCCL, the consortium that was running the Malawi Cargo Centre in Tanzania, will now assume the responsibility of operating, maintaining and rehabilitating the Malawi Cargo Centre infrastructure which initially was the responsibility of Malawi government.

“So far, the completed PPPs are Liwonde National Park, Nkhotakota Wildlife Reserve. Cear [Central East African Railways] project is also competed,” said Lipunga.

He explained that PPPs are projects where government surrenders its responsibility to a private company, adding that people tend to confuse government joint ventures such as the Malawian Airlines agreement as PPP.

Malawian Airlines entered into a joint venture with Ethiopian Airlines.

He said: “PPPs are input based return where the risk of designing, financing and operating the project remains with the investor. PPP projects cannot be justified in a competitive market and revenues are fenced and guaranteed.

“Through PPP, a private party is compensated on the basis of output delivered during the period of delivery.”

Currently, Lipunga said there are about seven new projects that have been lined up, including the Mpatamanga Hydropower Project, Shire Valley Transformation Project, Lilongwe Water Treatment Plant, Songwe River Irrigation Project which will be handled by Malawi and Tanzania, a modern bus terminal, a recreation park and a parkade in Blantyre.

In May 2011, PPPC, formerly the Privatisation Commission, established a dedicated PPP policy and key sectors identified for PPP investment in the country are energy, telecommunications, transport, tourism, public utilities, health and education. n