World Bank lauds its public-private sector partnerships

The World Bank hailed its public-private partnerships in Africa at a forum this week, terming them key to removing regional connectivity challenges for land-locked countries.

"It is important for governments to partner with the private sector, cushion against risky large investments, but allow the projects to be driven by the private sector," said Philippe Dongier, ICT sector manager at the World Bank. He was speaking at the forum organized by the Africa Union to discuss ways to develop Africa's ICT sector and provide affordable services to a majority of the population.

The World Bank is supporting large-scale undersea fiber-optic and terrestrial fiber projects in eastern, southern, central and west Africa. All of the projects involve investments from the private sector, but also significant investments from governments.

The East and Southern Africa Regional Communication Infrastructure Program is one of the successful public-private partnerships the World Bank has invested in. The US$424 million project supports terrestrial connectivity infrastructure in Burundi, Kenya, Madagascar, Rwanda, Mozambique, Malawi, Tanzania and is open to 18 other countries.

The Central African Backbone Program, with a $215 million investment supports regional connectivity for Cameroon, Chad, CAR and is open to eight other countries, while EASSy submarine cable is one of three cables connecting East and Southern Africa to international communications systems. The World Bank's investment in EASSy is expected to provide more competition and bring prices down.

Dongier also cited the Burundi national backbone project, where the government has provided half of the money and there have been agreements on licensing and cost structures, guaranteeing affordability.

"It is difficult to get cooperation among competitors, but with the government providing half of the investments, the backbone can progress," added Dongier.

The World Bank's optimism is based on a new report that indicates that enabling environment for private investment can lead to 95 percent mobile voice coverage of the African population and 89 percent basic internet coverage between 2008-2018.

Revising and harmonizing the legal and regulatory sector to accommodate rapid technological change and allowing competition in the sector are central to success for such projects, the report said.