Are Public-Private Partnerships a Panacea for Africa’s Digital Infrastructure Deficit?
On Wednesday 24 March 2021, The African Legal Support Facility (ALSF) held the second webinar in its series of PPP webinars for Anglophone Africa. The objective of the webinar was to explore the use of Public Private Partnerships (PPPs) as a means of addressing the digital infrastructure gaps across the continent.
The Panel, consisting of Sydney Domoraud, Managing Partner of Emire Partners, Christophe Dossarps, Chief Executive Officer of the Sustainable Infrastructure Fund (SIF) Source, and Jason Parker, Partner at Hunton Williams Kurth LLP, agreed that there were numerous complexities surrounding the use PPPs in digital infrastructure contracts. The major challenges discussed included the difficulty in pinpointing the public service or public asset that would be the subject matter of the PPP contract and the inherent difficulty in coupling a fast-evolving technology with a long term contract. The panelists agreed that PPPs must not be considered as the “Panacea” but merely one potential option, depending on the public asset and/or service. Governments should instead focus on providing a conducive environment for private investment which will in turn provide various avenues, including PPPs where appropriate, for digital infrastructure development. Private sector investment can be enhanced through:
- Developing policies that give clarity and create a roadmap for the vision for the sector;
- Developing coherent, robust legal and regulatory frameworks such as data privacy regulations, technology standards, competition, consumer protections and cyber security; and
- Conducting thorough project preparation to ensure pipelines of well-prepared projects.
