NAIROBI, April 18 (Xinhua) -- Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta has called for private-public partnership to spur infrastructure development in Africa.
Kenyatta also urged African governments to create an enabling environment to help the private sector participate more in the development of critical infrastructure in the continent.
High quality infrastructure reduces transactional and other costs, enabling efficient use of labor and capital, and enhancing connectivity between production points and market points, he said on Wednesday evening when he officially closed the inaugural AfroChampions Boma forum on African Infrastructure Financing and Delivery in Nairobi.
The two-day conference brought together key public and private sector players from across the continent.
Kenyatta said AfroChampions Initiative presents an exceptional opportunity for government agencies, private financiers and other stakeholders to come together and share their knowledge, expertise and experience leading to innovative solutions to the challenges in financing and implementing world class infrastructure systems in Africa.
The president said he was convinced that public private partnerships supported by robust national institutions to ensure accountability and transparency hold the key to closing the prevailing infrastructure gap on the continent.
He pointed out that Africa must work to address the insufficient stock of functional and quality infrastructure in energy, water and transport services to enable companies to produce competitively for both domestic and international markets.
He said, good infrastructure is the backbone upon which African nations will achieve economic growth that will in-turn create the much needed jobs for the youth as well as generate wealth to deal with the challenge of poverty.
The AfroChampions Initiative is a set of innovative public-private partnerships and flagship programs designed to galvanize African resources and institutions to support the emergence and success of African private sector in the regional and global spheres.
The initiative is driven by prominent private and public sector players in Africa.
Raila Odinga, African Union's High Representative for Infrastructure Development, expressed optimism that Africa is capable of addressing its infrastructure needs.
Odinga called on African countries to remove barriers that hinder the free movement of people, goods and services by abolishing policies that curtail the involvement of the private sector in infrastructure development.
