Mainstreaming public–private partnership in national development: How ready is Ghana?

Abstract

Public–private partnership (PPP) is a relatively new development paradigm in most developing countries. In an increasingly competitive global environment, governments around the world are focusing on new ways to finance development projects, build infrastructure, and provide social services to their citizens. This paper examines the challenges and the enabling environment for PPP mainstreaming in Ghana's development agenda. The study reviewed critical literature pertaining to prospects and challenges of PPPs across the world and critical success factors and challenges. The study was spiced by data generated through in‐depth interviews with experts on PPPs in Ghana. The paper reveals that implementation of PPPs in Ghana could be fraught with a number of challenges including regulatory frameworks, weak institutions, weak technical expertise, political will, bureaucracy, poor maintenance culture, contracting, negotiation challenges, and risk sharing and corruption. These challenges are complex in nature and require concerted effort and enabling environment to address them. There is the need for a clear regulatory framework and institutional capacity building to enable Ministries, Departments and Agencies and Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies to effectively handle the PPP processes in Ghana.

Governance and effectiveness of public–private partnership in Ghana's rural-water sector

“…The World Bank's (2017) assessment of PPP frameworks in 15 countries from both developing and developed counties shows that PPPs' management can be negatively affected by inadequate technical and financial capacity. Political interference also tends to adversely affect the success of PPPs (Ahenkan, 2019; Chetty and Luiz, 2014; Wang et al. , 2018).…”

“…Likewise, PPP in Ghana has been saddled with a governance deficit, which remains a serious policy problem (Ahenkan, 2019; Asare and Frimpong, 2013). PPP arrangements in Ghana have been characterized by massive elitism and patronage among political and economic actors that has often resulted in exploitation of citizens and wasteful dissipation of public funds (Ansah, 2015).…”

“…This has been accentuated by the limited role of critical policy advocates in Ghana's PPP regime (Ansah and Takyikwaa, 2018). Similarly, Ahenkan (2019) found that lack of transparency and corruption can motivate the private sector to maximize its profit at the expense of the public interest in PPP projects. Besides, challenges like poor stakeholder alignment and construction scope have been observed (Yussif, 2017).…”

“…, 2019). For any PPP arrangement to be successful, it needs to be supported by proper governance architecture (Akenkan, 2019; Sabry, 2015; Warsen et al. , 2020).…”

“…, 2018). Given that governance factors driving PPP adoption and success are distinct across countries (Brinkerhoff and Brinkerhoff, 2011; Hassen and Abdulwahed, 2014), empirical examination of PPP governance in the Ghanaian context is recommended (Ahenkan, 2019). Thus, this study aims to deepen the understanding of PPP governance by assessing: (1) the governance architecture, (2) the outcomes and (3) the challenges of PPP in Ghana's rural-water sector.…”