Region: Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA)
Country: Global / Non-Specific
Keywords: ALSF ***, Legal Framework *, Legislation and Laws **
Document Link(s):
Document Summary:
The African Legal Support Facility (ALSF) has developed country profiles to assess the progress of developing PPP legal frameworks in individual African nations. Furthermore, the ALSF has also collected data and carried out a comparative analysis of existing legal and institutional PPP frameworks in Africa, resulting in the recently published ALSF Survey, Public-Private Partnerships, Legal & Institutional Frameworks in Africa – a comparative analysis. The survey is primarily addressed to African governments that have already included or are considering including PPPs as a method for delivering public assets and services. National authorities and legislative bodies may also refer to this survey when developing PPP legal frameworks or assessing the effectiveness of existing ones. Additionally, international financial institutions and private sector investors who wish to gain a better understanding of how legal PPP frameworks operate across various African jurisdictions can also find value in the survey.
Document Details:
Key findings of the survey include:
- Out of the 54 countries in Africa, 42 have enacted PPP legislation.
- Out of these 42 countries, 24 follow the civil law tradition, 13 have a common law legal system, and five have a bi-jural system.
- Western and Central Africa have the highest percentage of economies that have enacted specific PPP laws, with all countries in the region having laws in place, except for Equatorial Guinea and The Gambia.
- Conversely, countries in Eastern and Southern Africa have enacted the least-specific PPP laws. Among the 12 countries that make up the Southern Africa region, four remain without a PPP law: Botswana, Eswatini, Lesotho, and South Africa.
- Other countries in Africa that have not enacted specific PPP laws include Comoros, Eritrea, Seychelles, and South Sudan in East Africa; and Algeria and Libya in North Africa.
- Annual trends show that the highest rate of enacted laws was between 2015–2017 with 16 laws passed over the three-year span. The first African country to enact a specific PPP law was Mauritius in 2004, while the most recent is the Republic of Congo in 2022.
- 41 of the jurisdictions surveyed have one or more dedicated PPP Unit. Composed of government teams focusing on PPPs, some units are independent institutions akin to other government departments, while others are either attached to Ministries of Finance, other technical ministries, or housed within the office of the prime minister or president.