Africa.

Mid-2010s.

You’re in the middle of a multibillion-dollar PPP.

Your consortium is assembled.

Your lenders are mobilized.

Your bid team is burning cash like Tesla compensating executives…

The agency launches the RFP.

Everyone is excited.

A fair, competitive process… in theory.

And then it starts:

Deadline extended.

“More time to refine proposals,” they say.

Another extension.

Silence.

And then another.

“These guys don’t seem ready”

Drop a new batch of documents in the data room.

(Oh, sorry we forgot to tell you that… the ground conditions are a bit worse than expected.)

More risks transferred.

(We found a clever way to push 20 more years of uncertainty onto you. You’re welcome.)

Ambiguous evaluation criteria.

“What do you mean by ‘preferred delivery certainty outcomes’?”

“Just trust the process.”

Meanwhile…

Bid costs are exploding.

Executive patience evaporates.

Equity providers start asking,

“Are we sure this government actually wants a PPP?”

Some of the best players leave the room quietly.

And the agency?

They look around shocked:

“Where did all the competition go?”

Here’s the real case part:

It wasn’t “much”.

The RFP dragged on nine extra months…

Nine.

If you are a dad or mum, you know that many things happen in that time…

Things like:

Lenders increased pricing because the market changed

Designers had to redo half the work

Our risk budget doubled

Competitors dropped out

The final price went up by 8–12%...

Expensive… when you’re talking about billions.

All because someone couldn’t run a clean process.

When the public agency finally realized the damage, guess what they did?

Nothing.

They just blamed “market conditions.”

Usual suspect…

The Lesson

If you (the procuring agency) aren’t ready:

Don’t launch the j*dida RFP.

A PPP is not a school project you get to “figure out later.”

It’s a competition.

And competitions need rules, clarity, and speed.

If governments want:

Real competitive tension

Strong international bidders

Better financing terms

Innovation

Value for money

Then they must respect bidders’ time, capital, and risk.

Otherwise… the best players walk away.

And all that’s left is politics and excuses.

Want the inside truth on how to run (or win) one of these properly?

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