The uptake of Public – Private Partnerships (PPPs) in the road sector in Zambia has been limited, despite the Government of the Republic of Zambia’s initiatives as far back as 2009 when the PPP Act was enacted. The paradox is that there was no study that had been conducted to determine the challenges in the implementation process. This study sought to find out the main challenges in the implementation process and to offer possible solutions. To achieve this objective, the researcher carried out a detailed literature review and utilized a purposively sampled population of experts in a semistructured interview and questionnaire survey. The Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) and the Pareto’s Principle were used to analyse the collected data. The study confirmed the prevalence of implementation challenges in the road sector in Zambia. From the fourteen identified and short-listed implementation challenges, the study identified nine as the major challenges requiring attention, with the three leading ones being: (1) non-financial viability of the concessions due to low traffic volume; (2) lack of time, resources, knowhow and authority within the staff of implementing agencies to originate and implement PPPs; (3) inconsistent and unclear PPP Policy. Based on the research, it was recommended that for PPP Projects to be effective in the road sector in Zambia, there was need for implementing agencies to categorize the noneconomically and economically viable toll roads and incentivize the former as part of the long term solution. Two PPP Models were recommended to encourage investment in the road sector in Zambia: the Design Finance Build and Transfer Model for non-economically viable Projects and the Design Finance Build Operate and Transfer Model for economically viable Projects. Furthermore, the study recommended capacity building in all implementing agencies and creation of specialized ‘swat teams’ to work with implementing agencies on specific transactions as
The uptake of Public – Private Partnerships (PPPs) in the road sector in Zambia has been limited, despite the Government of the Republic of Zambia’s initiatives as far back as 2009 when the PPP Act was enacted. The paradox is that there was no study that had been conducted to determine the challenges in the implementation process. This study sought to find out the main challenges in the implementation process and to offer possible solutions. To achieve this objective, the researcher carried out a detailed literature review and utilized a purposively sampled population of experts in a semistructured interview and questionnaire survey. The Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) and the Pareto’s Principle were used to analyse the collected data. The study confirmed the prevalence of implementation challenges in the road sector in Zambia. From the fourteen identified and short-listed implementation challenges, the study identified nine as the major challenges requiring attention, with the three leading ones being: (1) non-financial viability of the concessions due to low traffic volume; (2) lack of time, resources, knowhow and authority within the staff of implementing agencies to originate and implement PPPs; (3) inconsistent and unclear PPP Policy. Based on the research, it was recommended that for PPP Projects to be effective in the road sector in Zambia, there was need for implementing agencies to categorize the noneconomically and economically viable toll roads and incentivize the former as part of the long term solution. Two PPP Models were recommended to encourage investment in the road sector in Zambia: the Design Finance Build and Transfer Model for non-economically viable Projects and the Design Finance Build Operate and Transfer Model for economically viable Projects. Furthermore, the study recommended capacity building in all implementing agencies and creation of specialized ‘swat teams’ to work with implementing agencies on specific transactions as