The Director- General, Bureau of Public Procurement (BPP), Mr. Mamman Ahmadu, has stated that the review of the 2007 Public Procurement Act would add value to the society, improve efficiency and transparency in procurement.
Janet McDickson, the Deputy Director of Information and Head of Media at the bureau, said in a press release Wednesday that the DG made this known while receiving a delegation from the African Development Bank (AFDB) who were in his office on an Appraisal Mission Programme for the Economic Reform Programme.
Ahmadu said the review of the Public Procurement Act 2007 received inputs from different stakeholders, adding that the proposed amendment would take care of sustainable procurement, E-procurement and adequately take care of preferential procurement for gender, environment and SMEs, amongst many others.
He also said the Nigerian Open Contracting Portal (NOCOPO) has been enhanced for analysis by procurement officers who submit data, civil society bodies, citizens engagement and stakeholders, for increased disclosure of procurement information, pointing out that over 400 MDAs have been granted access to the portal.
The DG, in addressing the issue of procurement in the power sector, said Nigerians are anxious to get solutions on power, especially in the area of power generation, transmission and distribution, adding that procurement challenges in the energy sector is the issue of vandalisation, insufficient funding and calls for the protection of power assets to prevent further risks.
He emphasised that the projects that come to the bureau are largely transmission lines and substations due to the fact that generation and distributions are private sector driven.
He stated that the capacities of power generation is said to be at 28,000 megawatts, transmission at 10,000 megawatts and the power distribution at 4,000 to 5,000 megawatts, which is insufficient to the populace.
He requested the AFDB to act quickly and support the sector as this would add value to the society.
Earlier, the leader of the AFDB team, Dr. Patrick Owuori, had disclosed that the purpose of their visit was to take an overview on the procurement landscape, quality operations which focuses on energy sector, public finance and expenditure to enable the AFDB intervene in the challenges for a sustainable development in Nigeria.
He added that their visit would also extend to the Federal Ministry of Finance, Federal Ministry of Power, National Power Training Institute of Nigeria (NAPTIN), Development Bank of Nigeria (DBN), Nigerian Electricity Management Services Agency (NEMSA), Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS), Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Auditor General for the Federation, Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC), etc.
