ECOWAS organizes its Fourth (4th) Regional Infrastructure Public-Private Partnerships Forum focusing on “Strengthening Legal Frameworks for PPPs”

The Project Preparation and Development Unit (PPDU) of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) is organizing the fourth (4th) ECOWAS Regional PPP Forum from 15th – 16th May 2025 in Lagos, Nigeria.

Under the theme ‘Strengthening Legal Frameworks for Sustainable PPPs,’ the forum aims to create a platform to discuss challenges and opportunities relating to PPP legal and regulatory frameworks, drawing from the experiences of several ECOWAS Member States. It will identify critical success factors to support the formulation of effective PPP regulations in the context of emerging markets with limited access to capital. This is designed to strengthen the efforts of ECOWAS and regional partners, including the World Bank and the Spanish Agency for International Development Cooperation (AECID), to ensure the success of regional PPP infrastructure projects such as the Lagos – Abidjan Highway Corridor Project and the Praia – Dakar – Abidjan Highway Corridor Project.

In his speech at the opening ceremony, Mr Keba Fye, Acting Director of the PPDU on behalf of Mr Sediko Douka, Commissioner for Infrastructure, Energy and Digitisation of the ECOWAS Commission, outlined that the forum is in alignment with the mandate of the PPDU to promote the development of PPPs in the region. He highlighted the PPDU’s ongoing initiatives to build the capacity of Project Units of ECOWAS Member States and regional agencies in PPP project preparation, execution, monitoring, and management.

He noted, however, that despite these efforts, there are still gaps and challenges to ensuring the proliferation of bankable regional PPP projects. Some of these challenges include fragmented national regulatory frameworks and technical capacity gaps among experts. Lastly, the financing of PPPs is constrained by low investor commitment relating to enabling environment issues and risks associated with regional PPP investments.

Taking part in this important forum are representatives of PPP Units of the ECOWAS Member States, National PPP Regulators, the ECOWAS Commission and its specialized agencies, the UEMOA Commission, the World Bank, EBID, BOAD, AECID, ADB, IsDB, GIZ, and the private sector.

Key agenda items include presentations on the regulatory experiences of Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, Nigeria, and Senegal in formulating appropriate regulatory and policy frameworks for PPPs, as well as demonstrating the new regional PPP screening and prioritization tool.

At the conclusion of the forum, participants will adopt a series of actionable recommendations and strategies to guide the harmonization of regional PPP policy frameworks, facilitate engagements between PPP Agencies of ECOWAS Member States, explore financing mechanisms, and risk mitigation measures to attract private financing for regional PPP infrastructure projects.