Paving Way for Road Infrastructure Development in Public Private Partnership Emerging Economies: Lessons from Global Experiences and Policy Practices

Jude Thaddeo Mugarura ,Zwelinzima Ndevu ,Festo Nyende Tusubira

doi:10.7176/ppar/10-10-07

Abstract

Mismanagement of financing, tolling and project processes have been at the centre of the slow development of road infrastructure. Using a global outlook approach, this study synthesizes the public private partnership (PPP) financial challenges, tolling practices and PPP roads project experiences. Case studies were purposively selected to identify successes, failures, and reasons why such happened, as well as measures that have been taken to improve the PPP operating environment across the globe. This paper provides broad lessons upon which PPP emerging economies, especially those in Africa can improve road infrastructure for sustainable development. Keywords: road infrastructure, financial challenges, PPP road cases, tolling, lessons, PPP emerging economies DOI: 10.7176/PPAR/10-10-07 Publication date: October 31 st 2020

Highlights

Notwithstanding the fact that GFCs provide a better representation of financial hurdles in an international space, the 2008 global financial crisis was preferred for use because unlike other global financial crises, the 2008 global financial crisis sets a new and unique trend, where private partnership (PPP) investment grows steadily amidst stiff global financial challenges, as well as having the highest number of PPP projects during the overall period (See World Bank Group 2016)
Regardless of the hindrances, the project has made remarkable progress: For instance, traffic has been growing at about 11%; the road was constructed within the estimated cost and time; areas surrounding the East Coast Road (ECR) have had an increase in industrial and commercial investment; profits were realized a few years after the start of the operations phase; and over time the project has been experiencing a steady increase in revenues
This study proposes the public private partnership modality as an effective strategy to tackle the road infrastructure and services gaps as well their effects on national and continental development in Africa

Summary

Introduction

Road infrastructure is critical for sustainable development across the World, and in particular, carries over 90% of the total freight and passenger movements in Africa (Biau, Dahou & Homma 2008). Africa remains the least productive and competitive continent of the world (Ondiege, Moyo & Verdier-chouchane 2013), largely because of inadequate and underdeveloped road infrastructure. Only 34% of Africa’s population have access to roads compared to a 50% population for other developing continents (Ondiege et al 2013), and out of the 2 million kilometres of Africa’s roads only 27.6% are paved (against 43% for South Asia) (Biau et al 2008). The underdevelopment of the road network has resulted in severe traffic congestion and accidents. According to Ondiege et al (2013) traffic congestion is estimated to cause direct loss of time and productivity at an annual cost of US$19 billion in Lagos, US$0.89 billion in Dar es Salaam, and US$0.57 billion in Nairobi. Uganda has one of the worst road safety records in Sub-Saharan Africa, with an average rate of 45 fatalities per 10,000 vehicles (Ondiege et al 2013)

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Conclusion