Reasons for Implementing Public-Private Partnership in Road Construction: Perspective from State-Owned Agencies and Private Sector in Ghana

Abstract

Presently, there is a request by various stakeholders in the road construction sector to embrace public-private partnership (PPP) as an alternative means of solving the road infrastructure deficit in Ghana. To this end, the study sought to identify the underlying reasons for implementing public-private partnership in road construction in Ghana. It also intends to examine the differences in the perception of these reasons by the State-owned Road Agencies (SRA) (who represent the government) and the Private Sector (PS). A questionnaire survey was used to elicit the perceptions of the SRA and PS on the underlying reasons for implementing PPP in road construction in Ghana. An in-depth interview was also conducted among four PPP “experts” in Ghana. Seventy-six functional responses were analysed using Statistical Package for the Social Science (SPSS) to rank the importance of the reasons based on the overall responses, as well as the responses from both the SRA and the PS and to examine the differences in the perceptions between the two groups. “Shortage of government funding”, “Political pressure”, “Economic development pressure of demanding more facilities”, “accelerate project development”, “Allowance for shared risk”, “Ability to raise funds for project by private sector”, and “Facilitate creative and innovative approaches” were found to be the seven most important reasons for adopting PPP in road construction in Ghana. In terms of the differences in perception between the SRA and PS groups, the hypothesis test results indicated that significant differences exist for only a few of the reasons.