Lack of political will by governments and poor infrastructure are some of the biggest obstacles to successful public private partnerships in sub-Sahara Africa , according to a new publication by International Finance Corporation.

The IFC says with no governments, support decisions are slowly made and often not transparently.

Emmanuel Nyirinkindi, manager for IFC Advisory Services in PPPs in the sub-Saharan Africa says though there is quite a lot of funding available for projects and investors can expect strong returns, there are only few successful PPP projects to show in the region.

"PPPs such as power stations, ports, toll roads and hospitals represent a significant investment opportunity and present both strong public sector benefits and private sector returns... however the current insufficiency of actual physical infrastructure poses a hindrance as well as an opportunity to governments..." he said in the publication titled 'Emerging Partnerships'.

The findings also show governments need good advise especially on which projects to prioritise on.

"Affordability of good advisors is clearly a challenge for cash-strapped governments, although for countries richer in natural resources it is perhaps more a question of priority and knowing how to spend money wisely," the research said.

The IFC featured top 10 PPP in sub-Sahara ranked by their likely impact on a human life and innovativeness. The $142 million Kivu Watt Project in Rwanda was top. Also featured was an Irrigation Infrastructure project in Zambia, construction of Port of Cotonou in Benin and the 49.36 kilometer first ever toll road concession in Nigeria.

Kenya has just enacted the PPP regulation and expecting to see an inflow of investments.

Some of the projects earmarked for public private partnership include construction of the Nairobi-Mombasa dual carriage way, the Nairobi Commuter rail, Nyali bridge , Kisumu sea port, expansion of JKIA, 600MW coal project and geothermal expansion.