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Bridging Public-Private Sector Collaboration – The Nigerian Experience

By Reinier Starink and Zehan Teoh

“The ERGP had determined US$195.98 billion in private investments required to achieve its target of unlocking sustained inclusive diversified growth for the maximum welfare of Nigerians”

The second largest economy in Africa after South Africa, Nigeria is a uniquely diverse country comprising 371 ethnic groups with over 520 spoken languages. Its economy, however, was dependent on revenues from oil exports and thus had been adversely impacted by the decline in global oil prices in 2014 to 2016.

This resulted in the country experiencing a recession in 2016, leading the government to formulate the Economic Recovery and Growth Programme (ERGP) 2017-2020 to transform the economy. The ERGP requires US$245.13 billion to implement and had determined US$195.98 billion in private investments required to achieve its target of unlocking sustained inclusive diversified growth for the maximum welfare of Nigerians.

With this agenda in hand, the Nigeria’s Ministry of Budget and National Planning, tasked with overseeing the ERGP, appointed PEMANDU Associates to synthesise its plan into realistic implementable initiatives, looking to our experience in deploying our proprietary BFR methodology in effecting economic transformation in countries such as Malaysia, Oman, South Africa and India.

Specifically, they sought help in mobilising private sector investments in six sectors identified as the economy’s most productive. The sectors were then clustered into three workstreams based on their relevance to each other: Manufacturing & Minerals Processing, Agriculture & Transport and Power & Gas.


The initial interactions with the CEO and leadership of PEMANDU Associates was reassuring and gave a lot for the team to anticipate as to how the Labs would be run, and how this would constitute a key developmental experience for the country, the team members and the Lab participants. The CEO’s inspirational approach was therefore commendable. 

The Labs provide extensive involvement of most stakeholders to co-create solutions rather than have the solutions developed by a small team of consultants or just involving the stakeholders for consultation only over a few hours.

Towards the end of the project, the PEMANDU Associates project team and PEMANDU Communications, that assisted with preparing for the Open Day, appeared very outcome-oriented and this was positive. The communications team indeed appeared very positive in their approach and this was commendable.”

– Folarin Alayande, Co-ordinator, ERGP Implementation Unit/Senior Special Assistant to the President (SSAP, Economic Recovery and Growth Plan (ERGP)


Overcoming challenges, bridging gaps

Challenges in crafting a three-feet plan for these clusters for Nigeria, as with most countries in the world, were multi-faceted, stemming from the polarity in expectations between the public and private sectors. Governments typically have a record of amending policies and plans, while the private sector are generally motivated by the bottom line, hence may be cautious in participating in grand government plans.

This was a specific challenge tasked by the Nigerian government to PEMANDU Associates to decrypt. Drawing from PEMANDU’s previous experiences in mobilising private investment, such as the US$444 billion in investments facilitated and identified under Malaysia’s Economic Transformation Programme and the 775 projects valued at US$96 billion identified in the Urban Development Lab in Andhra Pradesh, we found that most economies in the world are dependent on the public sector to spur investments and expenditure.

Our role in Nigeria was to develop and enable a programme that would ensure the government continuously works with the private sector to own, initiate and implement transformational projects that would yield positive multiplier outcomes for the economy.

Some of the Manufacturing & Processing Lab members during the ERGP Focus Labs

Thus, for much of the first half of 2018, the PEMANDU Associates project team was stationed in Abuja to conduct the necessary groundwork and undertake Wave 1 of the ERGP Focus Labs.

Under this project, PEMANDU Associates helped the Nigerian government identify US$22.5 billion in private investments which could be unlocked from the implementation of 164 projects, paving the way for the creation of 513,981 jobs.

This was done by encouraging the private sector to take a proactive participation in the ERGP Focus Labs.  This proved to be a unique value proposition to the industry captains and with the support of the government who sent key decision-makers to the labs, it generated positive interest amongst the private sectors.

A total of 500 participants from both the public and private sectors, comprising the relevant stakeholders from the three workstreams, were brought together under one roof for six weeks.

Given the existing polarities, the exercise was expectedly met with its fair share of scepticism, with some private sector stakeholders turning up with their products with sales in mind, while some expected to garner public investments. Some, were taken by surprise at the level of involvement required of them, having been used to government-led economic initiatives. So, the challenge was to shift expectations and mindsets from ‘What is in it for me’ to ‘How can I contribute in terms of planning for my sector’.

Nonetheless, the presence of public sector decision-makers in the Labs, and the participants’ determination to achieve tangible results allowed them to put aside their cynicism and work towards to common goal. The private sector became the engine of the labs and the shift in conversation was a remarkable breakthrough.


“We would like to especially commend the management and project team of PEMANDU Associates for organising and facilitating the smooth conduct of the ERGP Focus Labs of the Federal Government of Nigeria, particularly the Agriculture/Transportation Projects.

Our company, Trucks Transit Parks Ltd, benefitted immensely from the programme in the following ways:

– highlighting to the government the social necessity that the project seeks to address;

– bringing to the notice of the government challenges faced by our company in progressing the project;

– assisting us to more properly package our project for fast-tracking by the government;

– enabling us identify certain inherent challenges to attracting investments into the project; and

– putting us in direct liaison with key regulators.

This would not have been possible if not for the professional approach of PEMANDU Associates’ hard-working team.”

– Jama Onwubuariri, Director, Trucks Transit Parks Limited, ERGP Focus Lab member


Getting to work

Once participants were on board, the next challenge was identifying and prioritising initiatives. Projects were categorised to their level of readiness and conversations were created to discuss their business model; from how to grow, plan and finance, with each project put under scrutiny.

These buckets of conversation separated projects ready for implementation and acceleration from projects under incubation. Creating relevant conversations which engaged participants successfully retained participants throughout the whole six weeks of the Labs, producing frank, transparent conversations.

The outcome of the Labs and its in-depth, implementable programmes were presented during an Open Day in Abuja in May 2018.

The Open Day, which was attended by the public and private stakeholders as well as the media, served to communicate the ERGP Focus Labs initiatives to the public.

Together with the Labs, the exercise served to inject greater transparency into the government’s initiatives, representing a good start for the Nigerian government to win over the hearts and minds of the country’s people in its bid to transform the economy.

In applying our 8-step Big Fast Results (BFR) Methodology, the approach in its start will always be met with a degree of cynicism. As experienced in previous projects, however, these sceptics are very quickly won over when they witness how the methodology works, our flexibility to adapt to client needs, all the while staying focused on meeting a clear set of deliverables.

Key to success in any of our BFR consulting projects has always been the team’s commitment to understand the country’s dynamics, the unique relationship between the private and public sectors, its tipping point, diversity and issues. The BFR Methodology has always allowed PEMANDU Associates to take a collaborative approach with participants to steer the conversation towards a true outcome guided by an objective. Leadership commitment and participation is always a mainstay in allowing incredible sharing of knowledge resulting in implementable outcomes.

Nigeria has today completed Steps 2 (Lab) and 3 (Open Day) of 8 and now has a clear plan for the first phase of its ERGP. The Government will now need to set these action plans into a detailed programme by way of a Roadmap for implementation. Coupled with the discipline of action and rigorous monitoring, the Nigerian Government has set itself on the path of transformation. And while the public and private sectors have painstakingly converged to realise this programme of change, the ultimate stakeholders who stand to benefit from this work are the people of Nigeria.

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BFR Untold – Nigeria’s ERGP [VIDEO]

Reinier Starink and Teoh Ze Han share their experiences from the lab with Nigeria’s Ministry of Budget and National Planning to unlock US$ 22.5 billion under their Economic Recovery & Growth Plan.

 

Pt. 1 // Why Did The Nigerian Government Need A Rescue Plan?

 

 

Pt. 2 // Getting Nigerians To Believe Their Government

 

 

Pt. 3 // The Lab Process Reimagined

 

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A Rose by Any Other Name

How do you say, ‘True North’ in a different language? As one of the main elements which anchors the work of PEMANDU Associates, translating the term True North, and so much more, lay at the heart of projects the organisation recently undertook in non-native English-speaking countries.

“It was definitely challenging – the work bandwidth tripled!” says Mohd Fauzi Puniran, a Vice President who was assigned to the Federal Road Agency Transformation Lab in Russia in late 2017. The Federal Road Agency (Rosavtodor) is responsible for overseeing the road transport industry and transport engineering in Russia, and had sought PEMANDU Associates’ Big Fast Results (BFR) Methodology to identify its True North to guide its management of federal roads. The Agency also requested our assistance to determine related initiatives to support regional economic growth.

“Some English words just do not make sense in Russian due to contextual issues, and may even appear offensive once translated. Hence, we worked closely with interpreters and our Russian counterparts to ensure the correct meaning was conveyed upon translation,” Fauzi, who was the engagement manager for the project, explains.

This process was painstaking, with the involvement of interpreters who would translate simultaneously while the Lab was underway. Each workstream was also co-facilitated by a Russian co-facilitator in addition to a PEMANDU Associates facilitator. This allowed the project team to gather the required input during the Lab towards preparing the final Lab report.

Hence, for the two months of the Lab, the team’s typical day consisted of 16-hour days spent facilitating the Lab, summarising the Lab findings in English then translating it to Russian. This was done not only to develop content for the final Lab report, but also to prepare for subsequent days’ proceedings throughout the duration of the Lab.

The team also put in effort behind the scenes to ensure the language barrier did not disrupt the work flow or working relationships between the Russian client and our associates, who are based in Malaysia, where English is the accepted language for business in addition to the national language, Bahasa Malaysia.

“We undertook frequent engagement with our client even outside of working hours. It also helped to build relationships among key stakeholders. Another strategy we adopted was to keep things simple. This did not only apply to our choice of words, but also in the way we conducted the Lab. It was important to explain each task undertaken during the Lab, so the Lab members not only understood the words we used, but also the meaning behind each action,” says Fauzi.

Zehan Teoh, a Senior Vice President at PEMANDU Associates who was stationed in Russia for a separate project, agrees on the importance of keeping it simple, adding that the fluency of language sometimes emerged secondary in communicating with clients and stakeholders.

Speaking on his experience in the country, he observes, “Very often we noticed that between non-native English speakers, although the vocabulary used was stripped down, it did not mean that information was being left out.

“Verbal cues are only part of the entire spectrum of communications, you also have non-verbal cues and body language.”

He adds that while translating on-the-go, be it from English to Russian or vice versa, did pose a challenge in the working environment, another important element it impacted was the ability to build trust amongst the project team and their Russian stakeholders; a crucial determinant in the success of any project.

Like Fauzi, Zehan saw that finding local advocates to help explain the context of discussions went a long way in ironing out communications breakdowns. Again, non-verbal cues, as well as staying engaged in discussions, even if they are being a conducted in a language you are unfamiliar, with also play a crucial role in building trust.

“Although the vocabulary used was stripped down, it did not mean that information was being left out.”

“Be sincere through your body language and show interest in trying to understand what they are saying. Even exhibiting that first step of being willing to reach out and being present will give your stakeholders the encouragement that you are sincere. Hence, even without a common language of communication, there are other ways to build trust,” he says.

The challenges posed by language barriers are also present in PEMANDU Associates’ currently on-going Senegal Agropole Lab project, which aims to identify projects to add value to priority crops and establish shared infrastructure and services for increased efficiencies by 2020 in South Senegal. This was despite half of the project team being fluent in French, the country’s official administrative language.

“The biggest challenge with the assignment is the subtle nuances between languages requiring Lab output to be monitored closely. Working with our client to ensure the meaning and context for the Lab output was captured and translated correctly was essential for future implementation. From a project management point of view, this required more time than usual, which means it put further pressure on a highly intense assignment like a Lab, says Yoong Huey Yee, a Vice President who is engagement manager for the project.

She points out however, that the difference in language allowed the project team to bond with the client due to the extra effort demonstrated. “Our fluency in French added to the client’s appreciation in our effort to make the assignment a success, despite our mother tongue being English. Working closer also facilitated trust-building,” she says.

She also agrees with Zehan’s advice that certain factors transcend language barriers, such as humility, attentiveness, respect and empathy, all of which helped the project team bridge the communication gap.

Beyond proving the importance of a common language in undertaking projects, our work in Russia and Senegal testifies to the universal transferability of PEMANDU Associates’ BFR Methodology – one that transcends differences in language in the pursuit of driving transformation.

Youth employment in Ethiopia

At the initiation of the Prime Minister of Ethiopia, Big Win Philanthropy is developing a partnership with the Ethiopian government to create 1 million quality jobs for young people.

With a large and rapidly growing youth population, generating productive youth employment is an urgent priority for Ethiopia to improve young people’s lives, build social stability and realize the potential economic benefit of a demographic dividend. Seventy per cent of Ethiopia’s population is under the age of 30, and by 2020 13 million young people will be seeking jobs. To add to the challenge, many of those who are in work are not earning enough to lift themselves out of poverty.

The partnership will aim to create quality jobs – skilled, secure, and with decent pay and conditions. There are many challenges to employment creation, including a mismatch between the skills of young people and employment opportunities, the availability of basic infrastructure, the availability of investment and the need for coordination between different government sectors.

An important element of success of national and regional employment initiatives is the multisectoral leadership and collaboration required to address systemic labour market challenges, identify areas where cross-cutting consensus is required, and champion innovative approaches. In Ethiopia, this will involve exploring new opportunities for diversifying long-term economic growth in sectors with the best potential to create quality jobs such as health, ICT, agri-business, aviation, and tourism while promoting innovation and entrepreneurship so that the government’s efforts are sustainable.

Youth employment is a top priority for Ethiopia’s new government and will now be championed by H.E. Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed to ensure alignment of cross-sectoral efforts at the highest political level. In parallel with this national political alignment, the Oromia region will be utilized as a demonstration model for other regions in the country, with work undertaken over a one year period to “unlock” over 1,300 stalled projects which have the potential to create 455,000 jobs.

The initial phase of the partnership will launch with a high-level workshop led by Pemandu Associates and will focus on aligning the program around definitions of “quality jobs”, dealing with issues such as levels of remuneration, stability of employment and working conditions. Pemandu is a consultancy that grew out of the Performance Management and Delivery Unit in the Prime Minister’s Office in Malaysia, and is credited with having played a major role in the successful Malaysian experience of creating employment opportunities for young people.

By Big Win Philanthropy

Read the original article here