In this interview with PHILIP IBITOYE, Dr Jobson Oseodion Ewalefoh, Director-General/CEO of the Infrastructure Concession Regulatory Commission (ICRC), discusses the commission’s reforms to accelerate Public Private Partnership (PPP) approvals, strengthen investor confidence and improve infrastructure delivery. He also explains the new threshold-based approval system, Nigeria’s Model PPP Agreement and the reforms aimed at making the country a more attractive destination for infrastructure investments.
You have described Nigeria’s infrastructure deficit as about $2.3 trillion, requiring roughly $100 billion in annual investment. Given the scale of the challenge, where should Nigeria’s infrastructure priorities lie over the next five years?
Since the Commission came into being under the ICRC Act of 2005, it has facilitated several projects that have brought private capital into the delivery of public infrastructure. By some estimates, Nigeria’s infrastructure deficit stands at about $2.3 trillion, and closing this gap by 2043 will require roughly $100 billion in annual investment. The capital component of Nigeria’s entire national budget cannot meet this need on its own, which is precisely why Public-Private Partnerships are the way forward. Rather than looking at the next five years in isolation, I would rather point to what has already been achieved in the last two to three years under the leadership of Mr President, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, and under the renewed direction of this Commission. We identified the major bottlenecks that had historically hindered PPPs in Nigeria — cumbersome, long-drawn approval processes — and we have streamlined them, in line with the President’s charge to me to seek innovative ways of attracting private capital and private finance into public infrastructure. Under this administration, the President has demonstrated the sacrosanctity of PPP agreements. No PPP has been cancelled under his watch; in fact, projects that had stalled for years before he came, including long-delayed concessions, have had their hindrances removed and are now progressing. Nigeria today stands as an investment destination, and indeed an investment haven, for both local and foreign capital. I would resist naming a single priority sector, because Nigeria’s infrastructure needs cut across every sector — healthcare, education, roads, ports, power. Name any sector, and I will show you the need in it. The focus for the next five years, therefore, is to consolidate the gains already made, sustain investor confidence, and ensure that Nigeria remains the pride of Africa in terms of investment, not just through this administration but into the next, by 2031 and beyond.
Government revenues alone cannot close the infrastructure gap. What specific reforms are necessary to make Nigeria significantly more attractive to long-term private infrastructure capital?
One of the reforms already touched on is our commitment to identifying gaps and fixing them directly. We have streamlined the approval process for Outline Business Cases: what used to take about six months now takes about seven days, once a business case is free of complications. Upon assuming office, I rolled out a six-point agenda, one pillar of which is leading from the front. This has meant cutting out unnecessary correspondence between the Commission and MDAs and holding direct meetings with MDAs and proponents to resolve issues that might otherwise have lingered for months, in a matter of weeks. Under the guidance of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, we have issued guidelines that walk investors and proponents, step by step, through the PPP investment process in Nigeria. We recently unveiled the Nigeria Model PPP Agreement, a template that guides all proponents and MDAs on how their agreements should be drafted, so that investors know what they are getting into even before pen is put to paper on an Outline Business Case. We have also deepened inter-agency collaboration, with me personally engaging MDAs and agencies on their infrastructure needs. Where projects have stalled, and some have called for termination, Mr President has sought the Commission’s advice, and we have reminded him of the sacrosanctity of PPP contracts as live documents that can be worked back to sustainability rather than abandoned. Perhaps the most significant reform is the threshold system: projects below ₦20 billion for Ministries and ₦10 billion for Agencies and Parastatals no longer need to go before the Federal Executive Council. Once due process is followed, and the Commission is satisfied, such projects can be approved by the Project Approval Board at the level of the Ministry or Agency concerned, with the ICRC continuing to provide regulatory guidance throughout.
You introduced a six-point agenda when you assumed office in 2024. Which of the six priorities has produced the most significant measurable impact so far, and which remains the most difficult to implement?
None of the six-point agenda was designed to work in isolation. They are six parts of the same goal: building an institutional framework and direction that can streamline and accelerate project delivery, in view of the scale of Nigeria’s infrastructure need and the role Public-Private Partnerships must play in meeting it. This is why, on assumption of office, I rolled out the six-point policy agenda: Innovative Financing, Service Delivery Optimisation, Project Categorisation, Time-Bound Delivery of Projects, Inter-Agency Collaboration, and Strategic Partnerships. On Innovative Financing, which was the core of Mr President’s charge to me, we have seen finances flow into Nigeria over the last two years under this administration, with more projects in the pipeline awaiting transmission to the Federal Executive Council. Projects are also coming on stream under our new threshold system, including the Standards Organisation of Nigeria project. On Service Delivery Optimisation, we are streamlining our processes to ensure they are faster and delivered on time, because Nigerians cannot wait indefinitely for the infrastructure they need — even as we ensure the right scrutiny is maintained. On Project Categorisation, the threshold reform has already begun recording milestones, with several projects nearing final approval at their respective Project Approval Boards, spanning agriculture, healthcare, and education. On Inter-Agency Collaboration and Strategic Partnerships, we have built strong working relationships with MDAs and with the private sector. Many MDAs that were previously hesitant or unaware of our regulatory role are now aware of it, particularly following the presidential directives of 2025 and their reinforcement in 2026, and they are actively partnering with us in pursuit of the same national goal: delivering the infrastructure that Nigerians need. All six points of the agenda are working in sync, and I am confident that by the end of this administration’s first term, we will have a compelling story to tell about what just two years of my leadership, and three years of President Tinubu’s administration, have achieved. It remains a work in progress, and we will continue to do our best.
The new threshold-based approval system allows ministries to approve PPP projects up to ₦20 billion and agencies and parastatals up to ₦10 billion. What evidence do you have that this has actually reduced delays in project delivery?
The essence of the threshold is not primarily about reducing delays in the process. Every project subject to the threshold still passes through the Commission’s full regulatory process — review of the Outline Business Case, due diligence, procurement monitoring, negotiation, and approval of the Full Business Case. What differs is the point of approval: once the ICRC has issued the Certificate of Compliance for the Full Business Case, the project proceeds to the Project Approval Board of the relevant Ministry, Department, or Agency, rather than to the Federal Executive Council. The value of this reform becomes clear when you consider what used to happen. A project worth ₦2 billion, ₦5 billion, or ₦7 billion would compete for space on the same Federal Executive Council agenda as projects worth ₦500 billion in power, or ₦700 billion in roads. This was not because the smaller projects were unimportant, but because larger projects, by their scale, tended to take precedence. Yet these smaller projects are often the ones that touch lives most directly and immediately — the deployment of an MRI machine in a hospital in Calabar, a hostel for a university in Lagos, or a farming centre for a community in the north. Such projects should not need to compete at the Federal Executive Council level for approval, which is why Mr President graciously approved this threshold arrangement in 2025. Since its introduction, the Commission has already streamlined its own internal processes to ensure that projects move at record speed, while efficiency and effectiveness of regulatory guidance are preserved throughout.
Does decentralising approval authority create any risk of weaker scrutiny, inconsistent standards or abuse by MDAs, and how is the ICRC guarding against that?
Decentralising approval authority does not in any way weaken scrutiny, nor does it expose government to greater risk. The ICRC continues to exercise its full regulatory oversight over every project subject to the threshold, from review of the Outline Business Case, through due diligence, procurement monitoring, negotiation, and approval of the Full Business Case, to the issuance of the Certificate of Compliance. Even after a project has been approved by the relevant Project Approval Board and vetted by the Ministry of Justice, exactly as is the case with projects that go through the Federal Executive Council, the ICRC continues its regulatory mandate of monitoring compliance, on the part of both the concessionaire and government, to ensure that every party remains bound by the terms of the agreement they have signed. Nothing changes in the substance of our oversight. Only the point of approval changes.
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You recently unveiled Nigeria’s Model PPP Agreement. What were the major weaknesses in the old project-by-project contracting system that this new template is intended to eliminate?
For nearly two decades following the enactment of the ICRC Establishment Act in 2005, Nigeria approached Public-Private Partnerships on a project-by-project and MDA-by-MDA basis, with each concession frequently negotiated from first principles. Definitions, risk allocation, default clauses, and dispute mechanisms were repeatedly reinvented, and often inconsistently, leaving Nigeria exposed and investors uncertain. This carried real costs: concessions took years to negotiate, disputes escalated into litigation where risk allocation was ambiguous, and lenders remained hesitant to commit long-term capital, because protections such as step-in rights, direct agreements, and predictable termination compensation were either absent or inconsistent from one transaction to the next. The Nigeria Model PPP Agreement, Version 1.0, unveiled in June 2026 and developed in close collaboration with the Federal Ministry of Justice, was designed to close that gap. It is not a one-size-fits-all template, but a dependable point of departure, benchmarked against Nigerian law and global best practice, from which every MDA can now negotiate with greater speed, security, and sophistication.
Its architecture reflects this purpose. It allocates risk deliberately, assigning each risk to the party best placed to manage it. Its default and termination regime is carefully balanced between Concessionaire and Grantor, with clear cure periods and compensation formulas. It safeguards project financiers through the Direct Agreement, giving lenders clear cure and step-in rights before termination. It resolves disputes through a graduated ladder — consultation and negotiation first, then confidential intervention by the Commission, and only then arbitration in Abuja under the Arbitration and Mediation Act, 2023 — rather than jumping straight to litigation. It distinguishes clearly between waivable and non-waivable Conditions Precedent, establishes a comprehensive insurance framework, and draws a clear line between Force Majeure and Change in Law. It also embeds a Contract Management, Reporting, and Performance Monitoring Framework that continues well beyond signing, and it weaves anti-corruption and ethical conduct through every clause. Beyond fixing these historical weaknesses, the Agreement is also meant to make the process faster, not slower. It gives investors a clear picture of what they are getting into before negotiations even begin, which speeds up contract drafting and reduces the back-and-forth that used to characterise our transactions.
How will the Model PPP Agreement balance investor protection with the public interest, particularly where a concession involves essential services that ordinary Nigerians cannot afford to lose access to?
The Model PPP Agreement was built on one guiding philosophy: predictability for Government, protection for investors, and performance for the Nigerian public. These three objectives are not in competition; they are designed to reinforce one another. On the investor side, the Agreement’s risk allocation is deliberate — assigning each risk to the party best placed to manage it — and it protects investors against measures that unfairly or disproportionately target their project, while equally shielding Government from liability arising from routine policy and legislative action. Investors are further protected through the Direct Agreement, which gives lenders clear step-in and cure rights, and through a graduated dispute resolution process that gives every party a fair opportunity to resolve issues before resorting to arbitration. On the public interest side, particularly for essential services that ordinary Nigerians cannot afford to lose access to, the Agreement embeds a Contract Management, Reporting, and Performance Monitoring Framework from day one. This gives Government visibility, oversight, and, where necessary, step-in capability, while fully respecting investors’ rights. Long-term concessions are not left frozen to first-day assumptions; they can be recalibrated through periodic review as circumstances change. In this way, the Agreement protects investor confidence and capital while ensuring that essential services remain accountable to the Nigerian public they are meant to serve.
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