PUBLIC–PRIVATE PARTNERSHIPS AND NEW PUBLIC MANAGEMENT IN NIGERIA: ACHIEVEMENTS AND CHALLENGES
Keywords:
Public Sector, Customer orientation, corruption, New Public Management (NPM) and Public-Private Partnerships (PPP).Abstract
Nigeria faces persistent infrastructure deficits and inefficiencies in public service delivery, which hinder economic growth and social development. In response, Public–Private Partnerships (PPPs) have been adopted to mobilise private capital, technical expertise and managerial efficiency, while New Public Management (NPM) reforms emphasise results-oriented, market-driven governance in the public sector. This study examines the PPP and NPM agenda in Nigeria, focusing on both successes and pitfalls. The study is purely qualitative utilizing data from secondary sources which include government reports, project documents and scholarly literature. Anchored on NPM theory, the findings indicate that PPPs have enhanced infrastructure development through projects such as the Lekki–Epe Expressway, Abuja–Makurdi highway and Murtala Muhammed Airport Terminal 2. These projects demonstrate efficiency, risk-sharing and improved service delivery. However, challenges such as regulatory gaps, political interference, financing constraints, technical capacity limitations and public resistance have occasionally delayed or disrupted implementation. The study concludes that PPPs, aligned with NPM principles, can drive sustainable infrastructure and service delivery in Nigeria, provided that regulatory frameworks, policy continuity, technical capacity and social equity are strengthened.
References
Adebayo, A. (2007). Public sector reform in Nigeria: Challenges and prospects. Ibadan University Press.
Akintoye, A., Beck, M., & Hardcastle, C. (2003). Public-private partnerships: Managing risks and opportunities. Blackwell Science.
Bashir, M., & Obadan, M. (2019). Infrastructure financing and public-private partnerships in Nigeria. Nigerian Economic Review, 14(2), 45–62.
European Commission. (2019). Guidance on public-private partnerships and infrastructure development. Brussels: European Commission.
Grimsey, D., & Lewis, M. K. (2004). Public-private partnerships: The worldwide revolution in infrastructure provision and project finance. Edward Elgar Publishing.
Hodge, G., & Greve, C. (2007). Public-private partnerships: An international performance review. Public Administration Review, 67(3), 545–558. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-6210.2007.00736.x
Hood, C. (1991). A public management for all seasons? Public Administration, 69(1), 3–19. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9299.1991.tb00779.x
Hood, C., & Dixon, R. (2015). A government that worked better and cost less? Evaluating three decades of reform and change in UK central government. Oxford University Press.
Islam, F. (2015). New Public Management (NPM): A dominating paradigm in public sectors. African journal of political science and international relations, 9(4), 141.
Olowu, D., & Sako, S. (2002). Better governance and public policy: Capacity building and administrative reform in Africa. Kumarian Press.
Osborne, D., & Gaebler, T. (1992). Reinventing government: How the entrepreneurial spirit is transforming the public sector. Addison-Wesley.
Pollitt, C., & Bouckaert, G. (2011). Public management reform: A comparative analysis – New public management, governance and the neo-Weberian state (3rd ed.). Oxford University Press.
Schelpa, P. (2015). Governance reforms in developing countries: Policies, outcomes and challenges. Routledge.
United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE). (2008). Public-private partnerships: Guidance note on key issues. Geneva: UNECE.
World Bank. (2017). Public-private partnerships in infrastructure: Lessons from emerging economies. World Bank Publications.
Yescombe, E. R. (2013). Public-private partnerships: Principles of policy and finance (2nd ed.). Butterworth-Heinemann.
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2026 This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, adaptation, and reproduction in any medium, provided that the original work is properly cited.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
Authors are permitted to post their work online in institutional/disciplinary repositories or on their own websites. Pre-print versions posted online should include a citation and link to the final published version in Journal of Librarianship and Scholarly Communication as soon as the issue is available; post-print versions (including the final publisher's PDF) should include a citation and link to the journal's website.
