The permanent secretary, Ministry of Interior, Dr Shuaib Belgore has disclosed that the ministry received over 38,000 applications for the country’s citizenship through Public-Private Partnership (PPP), initiative e in the last two years
This is even as he further disclosed that it also treated 45,751 business applications within the period under review.
Belgore said the stride boosted significantly income generated into the federal government coffers by the ministry.
He said: “Through PPP, the Ministry of Interior recorded a total Business applications of 45,751 as well as 38,051 Citizenship applications from September 2018 to October, 2020, leading improvement in income generation for the government by the Ministry.
The PS who called on the Office of the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation, (OHCSF) to professionalise the Public-Private Partnership (PPP) Unit in all Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) of the federal government made the call at the 4th quarter 2020 Public-Private Partnership (PPP) Units’ Consultative Forum (3PUCF) hosted by the ministry.
He said, professionalising the PPP units in all MDAs became necessary considering the infrastructure gap bedevilling the country as well as to ensure continuity, reduce public sector administrative cost, allow for shared risk, reduce the problem of public sector budget constraints and to also provide for easy monitoring of PPP projects across the country.
Represented by the director, Citizenship and Business department of the Ministry, Barr. (Mrs) Moremi Soyinka- Onijala, Belgore said it has become imperative for the government to look beyond its budgetary provisions for infrastructure development and embrace Public-Private Partnership (PPP) options that have been globally recognised as a project delivery process.
He emphasised that in line with recent trends in PPP, his Ministry was able to attract private sector investors for the development of some identified PPP projects in the security sector, especially in the areas of expatriate quota and citizenship automation; processing of non-judgemental Visa applications globally, immigration and borderline management; production of emergency passports and recently.
Others are the expansion and development of the Nigerian Correctional Service (NCoS)’s Shoe and Garment Factories in Aba, Abia state and a leather factory in Janguza, Kano State which he said, off-take and concession agreements are at the verge of being finalised for signing.
He added that the Ministry also has a number of pipeline PPP concept projects under various stages of development, notably in the areas of Staff Housing, Correctional Service Farmland Development, Land Swap projects as well as other PPP concept projects initiated by the Federal Fire Service (FFS) among others.
Dr. Belgore who lauded the support of the Infrastructure Concession Regulatory Commission (ICRC) in ensuring the projects have value for money and beneficial to all stakeholders, encouraged every member of the forum to take advantage of the knowledge-sharing session and experiences of other MDAs for speedy and successful delivery of PPP projects.
In her remarks, the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation, Dr. Folashade Yemi-Esan, urged all Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) of the federal government to be proactive in handling PPP projects and to also ensure focus on projects that would generate high returns on investments, with a view to ploughing back the profits generated to the economy.