Shortage of physical infrastructure is a top developmental challenge in sub-Saharan Africa (Deloitte 2013). Public facilities known as infrastructure are very important for every country’s production and distribution of economic output as well as to its citizens’ overall quality of life (IDEP/BADEA 2015; Cheng 2010 Algarni et al. 2007). To this end, many have suggested the need for the public sector to partner with the private sector known as public-private partnership (PPP) to overcome these infrastructural challenges and deficits without further stretching the public purse (Ghanaian National Policy on PPP 2011; Algarni et al. 2007; Hanaoka and Palapus 2012). According to Grimsey and Lewis (2002), PPP is where public sector bodies enter into long-term contractual agreements with private sector entities for the construction or management of public sector infrastructure facilities by the private sector entity, or the provision of services by the private sector entity to the community on behalf of a public sector entity. There are a number of PPP models or delivery systems (Dahiru 2012; Angleoha 2003) of which Build Operate Transfer (BOT) is one. BOT emerged as a viable strategy, and it has been promoted by both developed and developing countries as a way to supply badly needed infrastructure services while under stringent budgetary constraints (Cheng 2010). BOT has established itself as a valid delivery or financing system and the main idea behind it is to alleviate the spending on governments’ budgets by seeking capital from external financiers especially on large scale projects (Algarni et al. 2007). In most BOT projects, private capital builds an infrastructure facility, manages it for a period of time when it is expected to cover its costs and agreed returns, and then hand the facility over to public management (Kumaraswamy and Zhang 2001).

While African governments have shown considerable interest in PPP (Ghanaian National Policy on PPP 2011) very few projects have been achieved. It is, therefore, relevant from both a research and management as well as policy point of view, to investigate the obstacles and challenges in the PPP (BOT) system in African countries.