UK-based firm seeks to offer services on PPPs

in an interview in Harare recently, associate director of Driver Global Consultancy Mr Ralph Ellis said his firm was hoping to engage Government to see if they can offer their services on PPPs.
Mr Ellis said there was a lot of potential for investment in the development of the country’s infrastructure and his firm was hoping to get the go-ahead from the responsible Government departments to help develop the PPP market in the country.
His firm has worked on PPP projects with governments in more than 11 African countries including South Africa where he said they were working on developing a PPP model for three major hospitals.
“We work with different southern African governments in internal capacity building and we hope to do the same in Zimbabwe. Once we are done in South Africa, we are hoping to engage the Zimbabwean Government and discuss the possibility of offering our services. There are many opportunities for investment in the country’s roads, rail, schools, hospitals and we wish to highlight these,” he said.
Mr Ellis said many foreign investors had been reluctant to invest in Zimbabwean projects because of the risk associated with the country.
“Investors have been shy to invest in Zimbabwe because they fear the risk associated with the country, but we have realised that this is a perceived risk more than anything as there is plenty of opportunity to do business in a transparent manner,” he said.
Driver Global Consultancy undertook pre-feasibility and feasibility studies with the principal objective of identifying PPP-viable projects, establishing the definition of these projects and advising on the optimal transaction strategy to be employed in the realisation of the projects.
He said they also assist throughout the entire transaction process of the approved PPP business units including preparation and implementation of comprehensive procurement documents, draft contracts, and assistance during consultation phases, the evaluation process and final contract negotiations to the final execution of an agreement.