NAIROBI, Jan. 23 (Xinhua) -- Kenya plans to prioritize private sector investment in infrastructure development due to constrained government resources, officials said on Tuesday.
Stanley Kamau, Director of the Public Private Partnerships (PPP) unit at the National Treasury, told journalists in Nairobi that a number of regulations are already in place to ensure that the private sector helps government to reduce the infrastructure deficit.
"Kenya will tap into the private sector to accelerate infrastructure development in the country," Kamau said.
He said that government is facing pressure to fund a number of social program including health and education, leaving little resources to spend on infrastructure.
Under the PPP framework, the private investors will finance construction of infrastructure such as roads or energy projects and charge users a fee to recoup their investments and hand over the facility to government after a period of between 20 to 25 years.
According to the National Treasury, there are currently 70 PPP projects in the pipeline, 66 of which were approved under the solicited process and 4 approved as Privately Initiated Investment Proposals (PIIPs).
Kamau said that out of the 66 approved under the solicited process, 60 are under the National Government and 6 are under County Governments.
The director said that one of the first PPP projects to be operationalized include the construction of university hostels for 24,500 students for three public universities.
He noted that the private investors will sign a 20-year concession with public universities to build hostels and will recoup their investment from student rentals.
