Jobson Ewalefoh: Putting Public Interest at the Heart of PPPs

Hammed Shittu

For the Director-General/Chief Executive Officer of the Infrastructure Concession Regulatory Commission (ICRC), public-private partnerships are not simply about bringing private capital into public projects or creating opportunities for investors to make commercial returns. At their core, he argues, PPPs must deliver tangible value to the ordinary Nigerian.

That philosophy comes through particularly strongly when the conversation turns to healthcare.

The ICRC is involved in healthcare PPPs such as MEDIPOOL, a project designed around the bulk procurement and distribution of medicines. But with private capital comes an obvious question: how does government ensure that the search for commercial returns does not make essential healthcare products unaffordable?

Ewalefoh’s answer is unequivocal.

“A healthcare PPP will fail its purpose if its pricing places it beyond the reach of the ordinary Nigerians it was meant to serve,” he said.

For him, the regulatory process is therefore not merely about determining whether a project can attract financing. When an Outline Business Case reaches the Commission, it is subjected to a series of tests – viability, bankability, value for money, procurement transparency and, crucially, public interest.

The question is not simply whether a project can make money. It is whether the project can make economic sense while still meeting the needs for which it was conceived.

“We ensure public interest: that the project meets a genuine need for Nigerians and that it is priced fairly and affordably,” he explained.

That distinction is important. Ewalefoh does not appear to see commercial viability and public benefit as competing objectives. Rather, he sees a properly structured PPP as one in which both can coexist. MEDIPOOL, in his telling, illustrates the point.

The project seeks to use the purchasing power that comes with bulk procurement to bring down the cost of medicines and improve distribution, including to communities far from major urban centres. But Ewalefoh sees an even bigger opportunity beyond procurement. As the project develops, he says, it is expected to support local manufacturing of some medicines that Nigeria currently imports.

That, potentially, changes the equation. Cheaper procurement could improve access in the immediate term, while domestic manufacturing could create jobs, strengthen the local economy and reduce costs over the longer term.

The ultimate measure of success, therefore, is not the financial return to investors alone. It is whether Nigerians can actually obtain the medicines they need at prices they can afford.

The same philosophy runs through Ewalefoh’s defence of tolling under the Highway Development and Management Initiative.

Road tolls can be politically sensitive in Nigeria, particularly when motorists are asked to pay for infrastructure they may already feel they have been taxed to provide. Ewalefoh, however, frames the issue differently: what are Nigerians getting in return for the money they pay?

He points to the Akwanga–Makurdi road, a 227-kilometre corridor with four toll gates, as an example of what he considers a successful PPP arrangement.

An average saloon car travelling the route pays tolls at the gates. But Ewalefoh asks Nigerians to consider that cost against what motorists previously endured on the road – hours lost in traffic and delays, damage to tyres, shock absorbers and other vehicle components and the dangers posed by accidents on a notoriously poor road.

The argument is straightforward: motorists are more likely to accept a toll when they can see and feel the value of the infrastructure for which they are paying.

According to Ewalefoh, feedback gathered from road users suggests precisely that. Some drivers, he said, have told the Commission that they would not object to tolling on other major routes if those roads were brought to a similar standard.

He mentions the Enugu–Maiduguri corridor as one example.

“That, to me, is the beauty of a well-structured PPP,” he said.

There is another important element to the model. Toll revenue is not simply collected as a commercial return. Part of it is warehoused specifically for the maintenance of the road.

Under the arrangement, Ewalefoh says, the government does not have to bear the additional maintenance burden throughout the concession period. The concessionaire is also required to fix potholes within 48 hours, while major routine repairs are funded from the toll revenue set aside for that purpose.

In this model, the toll becomes part of a larger cycle: motorists pay, infrastructure improves, and revenue is reinvested to keep the road in good condition. For Ewalefoh, that is what makes a PPP sustainable. But his vision extends beyond individual projects and even beyond Nigeria.

Ewalefoh has been calling for stronger PPP collaboration across ECOWAS, and when asked what Nigeria can bring to such regional partnerships, he points to a project he clearly considers a source of national pride: the Customs Modernisation Project, popularly known as B’Odogwu.

His point is that Nigeria does not have to be merely a recipient of infrastructure solutions developed elsewhere. It can also develop models that other countries want to adopt.

He cited the adoption of the Nigerian customs modernisation model by the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) Secretariat for a proposed $3.1 billion, 20-year concession to be deployed across roughly 50 AfCFTA member countries.

For Ewalefoh, this is more than a commercial transaction.

“This is a victory for Public-Private Partnerships,” he said.

It demonstrates, in his view, that PPPs can produce innovations capable of travelling beyond national borders and contributing to Africa’s wider economic integration.

Landlocked West African countries, he argued, could benefit from access to Nigerian port infrastructure for the movement of imports and exports. Major transport corridors, including the Abidjan–Lagos Corridor Highway, could further connect economic centres across West Africa and facilitate trade with countries such as Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger.

The opportunity, therefore, is not merely about constructing roads or modernising customs systems. It is about creating interconnected infrastructure that allows businesses, goods, capital and people to move more efficiently across borders.

Listening to Ewalefoh, one gets the impression that he sees PPPs as much more than a financing mechanism.

They are, in his conception, a framework for changing the relationship between government and the private sector -one in which government creates the regulatory environment and protects the public interest, while private investors contribute capital, expertise, innovation and operational discipline.

But the balance matters.

The private sector cannot be expected to invest without a reasonable prospect of commercial return. At the same time, government cannot surrender its responsibility to protect citizens in the pursuit of private investment. That tension sits at the heart of almost every PPP conversation. Ewalefoh’s answer is that good regulation is what holds the two sides together.

Whether it is medicines, roads, ports or customs systems, the test remains essentially the same: Does the project deliver value? Is it financially sustainable? Is it transparent? And, most importantly, does it serve Nigerians?

It is a philosophy that also explains his optimism about taking Nigeria’s PPP experience into the wider African market.

“Public-Private Partnerships have shown what is possible when government creates the right environment and the private sector brings capital, innovation and discipline to the table,” he says.

His message to Nigeria and its regional neighbours is consequently less about what PPPs might become and more about what they have already demonstrated they can achieve.

The challenge now, as he sees it, is to scale those successes.

To build on what works. And to do so collectively – not only for Nigeria, but for a more connected and economically integrated Africa.