By Gabriel Ameh, Abuja
The Organized Private Sector in Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (OPS-WASH) has blamed Africa’s worsening water and sanitation crisis on weak institutional systems that continue to discourage private sector investment across the continent.
Speaking at a press conference in Abuja, the Global Head and National Coordinator of OPS-WASH, Dr. Nicholas Igwe, said Africa’s inability to provide safe water and sanitation for millions of people is not due to lack of technology, expertise or funding opportunities, but because governments have failed to create investment-friendly structures capable of attracting sustainable private capital.
According to him, more than 600 million Africans still lack reliable access to safe water, while nearly twice that number do not have access to basic sanitation despite decades of donor interventions.
Dr. Igwe argued that the WASH sector has remained overly dependent on donor agencies and civil society organisations because many African governments have not established the regulatory and commercial systems needed for long-term private investment.
“The challenge is not that investors are unavailable. The challenge is that the institutional framework that should coordinate capital, technology and government support is weak,” he said.
He noted that investors require predictable revenue streams, stable contracts and independent regulation before committing billions of dollars into infrastructure projects with long-term repayment periods.
According to him, the absence of these guarantees has made the WASH sector unattractive compared to industries such as telecommunications and energy, where reforms and liberalisation opened the door for massive private investment.
He recalled that Nigeria’s telecom sector experienced major transformation after private operators were allowed to participate under a stronger regulatory framework.
“In the past, telecom services were government-controlled and inefficient. But after liberalisation, private capital entered the sector and transformed communication across Africa. The WASH sector requires similar reforms,” he explained.
Dr. Igwe also warned against political interference in regulatory agencies, saying investors are discouraged when contracts and policies can easily change with different administrations.
“The private sector cannot invest for 20 or 30 years in an environment where agreements are uncertain,” he added.
OPS-WASH further stressed that achieving Sustainable Development Goal 6 on clean water and sanitation by 2030 would require about $114 billion annually worldwide, a funding gap that public finance and donor support alone cannot close.
The organisation called for stronger collaboration between governments, regulators, development partners and private investors to create commercially sustainable systems capable of expanding access to clean water and sanitation across Africa.
