As Sanwo-Olu leverages PPP to deliver on his THEMES+ agenda
By Chioma Amaechi
Outlining his priorities for second term on May 29, 2023, Lagos State Governor, Mr. Babajide Sanwo-Olu, vowed that no one will be left behind.
The Governor, whose first term agenda was anchored on T.H.E.M.E.S agenda, an acronym which stands for Transportation and Traffic Management; Health and Environment; Education and Technology; Making Lagos State a 21st Century Megacity, Entertainment & Tourism; and Security & Governance, said he has taken it to the “next level.”
“Henceforth, it will be known as “T.H.E.M.E.S+,” the “plus ” representing the incorporation of an intensified focus, in these next four years, on Social Inclusion, Gender Equality and Youth,” the Governor explained.
“In other words, we are strengthening and reinforcing THEMES with a ‘No One Left Behind’ philosophy. No one will be left behind on account of their social status, gender or age; we will design all our policies and programs to ensure that everyone is carried along and catered to. This is our solemn promise to you.”
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The vehicle with which Sanwo-Olu is conveying his agenda to its destination is the Public-Private Partnerships (PPP) model.
The Office of Public-Private Partnerships (OPPP), Lagos State Government, which is an agency created by the 2011 PPP Law of Lagos State, has the primary objective of facilitating the development of public infrastructure or public assets and providing social amenities and other facilities for Lagos State through Public Private Partnerships.
But the visionary and pragmatic leader that he is, Governor Sanwo-Olu has maximized the OPPP to align with the THEMES agenda of his administration aimed at building a greater Lagos and Lagosians are better for it.
Globally, the PPP, a long-term arrangement between a government and private sector institutions, has become the most-embraced developmental model because it typically involves private capital financing government projects, particularly infrastructure projects, and even services up-front.
Of course, the idea of a partnership between the public sector and the private sector for the purpose of delivering a project or a service traditionally provided by the public sector, is informed by the very limited resources available to governments.
So, an administration that is in a hurry to take Lagos to the comity of industrialised states as Sanwo-Olu’s had no hesitation adopting the PPP model.
The result has been phenomenal in all sectors.
For instance, in the health sector, the administration, through the Office of Public Private Partnerships, facilitated sundry ongoing healthcare initiatives such as laboratory, radiology, blood screening and pharmaceutical services; x-ray and ultrasound machines at the Maternal and Child Centre (MCC), Eti-Osa.
In the education sector, the administration in collaboration with private developers is set to deliver an unprecedented 6,016 bed spaces at the Lagos State University. Construction of 16 blocks of hostels of 94 rooms each with 376 beds per block is at the completion stage and the hostels will help in solving the acute accommodation problems facing university students.
In the housing sector, there is the ongoing Ilubirin Foreshore Housing Scheme project, which sits on a sprawling 28.6 hectares of land at the Ilubirin Foreshore. When completed, Ilubirin Estate, a public foreshore housing project being built on reclaimed land in Ikoyi Island at the foot of the Third Mainland Bridge, facing the Lagos Lagoon waterfront, will, no doubt, bridge the yawning accommodation gap in Lagos State.
Then, there is the perennial traffic gridlock in Lagos which seems to have defied every solution.
But for an administration in whose dictionary the word impossibility is a taboo, the Sanwo-Olu government, thinking out of the box, is maximizing PPP in looking for solutions.
The Artezia Traffic Violation Management System is a PPP initiative that is deployed as a solution that captures, processes and stores traffic violations data as well as billing and payment for vehicle inspection.
The deployment of handheld devices across Lagos to capture traffic infractions has contributed in sanitizing Lagos roads.
As “a pivotal enabler for the transformation of Lagos into a thriving Africa’s model megacity,” the OPPP is delivering handsomely on its mission of being “a catalyst resource-centre leveraging on private sector participation in the procurement and delivery of world-class value-for-money infrastructure for Lagosians.”