Benin: Building its public-private partnerships program
CPCS formalizes approaches to public-private partnerships in Benin to boost economic growth.
The challenge
The bucket list of infrastructure projects in Benin is growing. One way to finance its growth is to attract more investment from the private sector. This requires a robust public-private partnerships (PPP) program.
The challenge is that the government is relatively new to PPPs. Given that such arrangements are quite complex, the World Bank turned to CPCS to shape and bring Benin’s PPP program to life.
What we did
For two years, CPCS worked hand in hand with government officials and stakeholders to get Benin on the fast lane.
CPCS built Benin’s PPP program in three parts:
- Review and offer recommendations to strengthen Benin’s legal and institutional framework
- Build local officials’ capacity to identify and implement PPPs
- Make a business case for two potential PPP project, namely exploiting Special Economic Zones (SEZ) and establishing a Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) in Cotonou
“It was a fascinating assignment,” says Jan Grabowiecki, PPP expert at CPCS. “PPPs are complex, so we spent a lot of time focusing on capacity building with government officials.”
“We introduced them to different PPP models and their various applications. We also showed them how to evaluate the feasibility of these models.”
“You can say we offered them an accelerated course on this topic,” adds Jan. “We even crafted them an operations manual for future reference.”
Impact
Officials from Benin now have a better understanding of public-private partnerships as well as a better idea of the projects they should prioritize. Our work provides them with a strong basis for developing infrastructure projects that can attract private sector participation.
