The Corporate Accountability and Public Participation Africa (CAPPA) has faulted the Lagos State Government’s decision to privatise water supply through a Public-Private Partnership (PPP), describing the move as anti-people and a betrayal of residents’ right to safe and affordable water.
In a statement issued Wednesday, CAPPA dismissed a recent two-day advocacy workshop organised by the Lagos Water Corporation (LWC) to promote the PPP agenda as “a sham public relations exercise.”
The workshop, themed “Attracting Investment for Improved Water Supply in Lagos State through Public-Private Partnership,” saw lawmakers pledge to amend laws in favour of investors, while the Office of Public-Private Partnerships described the initiative as the “first concession” of water infrastructure, starting with about 10 percent of assets.
CAPPA warned that the scheme would reduce water from a human right to a financial asset “securitised for the comfort of investors.” It argued that Lagos had for years pursued water privatisation schemes that shift costs onto already burdened residents.
Responding to LWC Managing Director Mukhtaar Tijani’s claim that CAPPA boycotted the workshop “by choice,” the group said it refused to legitimise a process already predetermined by the issuance of a Request for Proposals (RFP) for private investors to operate mini and micro waterworks under a Build-Finance-Operate-Transfer (BFOT) model.
“Genuine stakeholder engagement must come before—not after—major policy and investment commitments. By inviting bids before consultation, the Lagos State Government has shown contempt for accountability and treated residents as afterthoughts,” said Akinbode Oluwafemi, CAPPA’s Executive Director.
The group also pointed to a history of opaque deals, citing a 2025 Memorandum of Understanding between the state, Belstar Capital (USA) and ENKA (Turkey), as well as the 2024 Lagos Water Partnership, which CAPPA described as a “tokenistic box-ticking exercise.”
It further rejected Tijani’s argument that PPP is not privatisation, stressing that concessions, leases, management contracts and BFOT arrangements amount to privatisation in practice since control, tariffs and jobs shift to profit-driven private operators. CAPPA referenced the sack of over 800 LWC workers last year as evidence of the risks.
The group also challenged claims of PPP “success” in Rwanda, South Africa, Uganda, Morocco, Egypt and Malawi, insisting those cases were marked by tariff hikes, service disruptions, corruption and public backlash. It noted that in the UK—where some Lagos PPP backers are based—water privatisation has led to higher bills, sewage spills, and shareholder profiteering.
“For us, the global lesson is clear. Cities like Paris, Berlin, Buenos Aires and Jakarta that once tried water concessions have since reversed them, reclaiming public control after years of higher costs and degraded services. Lagos should not repeat these mistakes,” CAPPA said.
Instead, the organisation urged Lagos to adopt remunicipalisation by rebuilding public capacity, investing more in infrastructure, and exploring public-public partnerships that treat water as a shared good rather than a commodity.
It called on the state government to halt the ongoing PPP scheme, withdraw the current RFP, disclose all existing agreements with private investors, and initiate an inclusive dialogue on sustainable, publicly managed solutions to the water crisis.
