The Zimbabwe government has taken over ownership and operations of Southern Africa’s first public–private partnership (PPP) and build, operate and transfer (BOT) concession, the New Limpopo Bridge, at Beitbridge, following the expiry of the BOT agreement last week.

According to Old Mutual Investment Group’s Infrastructural, Developmental and Environmental Assets (Ideas) fund manager Sean Friend, this was the first BOT concession in Africa to have run its course with the asset returning to the public sector.

In addition to Ideas, the project’s shareholders comprised an Israeli consortium as developers, as well as banking institutions Nedbank and Sanlam.

The Limpopo Bridge was the first infrastructure asset that the Ideas managed fund bought in 1998 as a BOT concession.

“It was a 20-year concession to build the new two-lane bridge across the Limpopo river at the Beitbridge border between South Africa and Zimbabwe, replacing the old 80-year-old single lane bridge,” said Friend.

“The objective was to toll it over this 20-year period and then return it to the Zimbabwe government at the end of the concession. In return, and in addition to receiving the bridge back at no cost, the government received both a healthy fee and taxes. Consequently, we believe this is an important example of a successful PPP.”

In addition to being the first Southern African PPP project to reach the transfer stage of a BOT, the Limpopo Bridge was also the first major infrastructure project in Zimbabwe undertaken by the private sector under the BOT.

“Through PPPs, a government can facilitate world-class infrastructure without impeding their social infrastructure spend. As such, there are significant opportunities for institutions to partner with governments to meet the Southern African  Development Community region’s diverse infrastructure needs,” Friend noted.

He added that it was through partnerships such as this that governments could deliver quality infrastructure required to facilitate economic growth.

“This provides an effective way for the State to implement large-scale construction and infrastructure projects without taking on the operational risks involved, and while mitigating the budgetary impact,” he said.