Engaging The Private Sector In Developing The Nigeria Education Infrastructure; A Policy and Strategy Perspective

The Nigeria education sector lacked quality infrastructure investment and this has posed as a bane to improved quality of education. Bridging this infrastructure gap, in form of construction of new infrastructures and upgrade of existing ones, requires huge capital investment and technical capabilities. The Nigerian government has leveraged on private investors, under the PPP arrangement, to build and operate the nation’s infrastructure; but there is currently no project in the education sector that has reached financial closure due to lack of good infrastructure governance. This article examines the challenges of developing education infrastructure PPP in Nigeria using the open-ended, inductive and qualitative approach to data collection and analysis. It was discovered that the lack of clarity and transparency in the policies and regulation governing PPP for the Nigeria education sector is not comforting to the private sector investors, even though they are generally comforted by the clear methods of interaction with the key public sector entities as well as the simplified processing steps. The lack of clarity and transparency was evident in the lack of financial mechanism put in place to facilitate the development of viable projects, especially in this sector. Ways through which existing policies, regulatory and institutional frameworks governing PPP in Nigeria can be strengthened were suggested. Finally, a long term sector vision objectives and the strategic legal system is recommended.