The World Bank says that Nigerian companies are among the biggest beneficiaries of development procurement globally, ranking fifth worldwide in contracts awarded to local contractors.
Speaking at the World Bank Group Business Opportunities Seminar on Tuesday in Lagos. the Vice President, Operations Policy and Country Services of the World Bank, Ms Gallina Vincelette, said, “Over the past five years, Nigerian suppliers have been awarded more than 6,800 World Bank-financed contracts. The total value is over two and a half billion dollars.
“More than half, more than 60 per cent of these awards have gone to the delivery of city works.”
According to her, these roads and bridges and hospitals and school construction make Nigeria fifth globally by way of contracts awarded to locally based suppliers.
“This is a very big achievement, and that’s why the budget minister also mentioned that the opportunities are not only in Nigeria, but also across Africa, where Nigerian companies can pursue and be competitive,” she said.
On job creation, the World Bank announced a mandatory local labour requirement in major contracts, a move expected to significantly boost employment in Nigeria.
Vincelette said, “The latest change we have put forward, which goes hand in hand with our jobs agenda, is a requirement of a minimum 30 per cent of local labour participation, 30 per cent of all labour cost that is in civil works contracts.”
“We do that because when we invest in countries, we want to make sure that the countries actually invest in their people, that they give all the skills to work on more brand projects.”
In his opening remarks at the event, Nigeria’s Minister of Budget and Economic Planning, Alhaji Atiku Bagudu, attributed Nigeria’s growing access to global procurement opportunities to recent economic reforms and strong international backing.
He said, “The last two and a half years have been years of reform, and the World Bank stood by us. Yes, we are members of the bank. We feel entitled from that point of view, but they will recognise that our president took what may be, in the history of economies, one of the most courageous combinations of choices that have ever been taken by a political leader, maybe around the world.
He was not unmindful of other countries in the sub-region, where there was even disaffection with democracy. It didn’t help matters because he was the chairman of ECOWAS; he didn’t hesitate to make choices that were brave or courageous or necessary, which were expedient to move Nigeria in the right direction. Among several support groups, in particular, the World Bank stands out.”
Charging Nigerian companies to take advantage of the opportunities, Bagudu said: “Our president believes in our capacity. So, we believe our construction companies, our artisans, and our service providers can increase globally, and this opportunity that has been provided by the bank is quite well appreciated.”
Bagudu also disclosed that the World Bank, IFC and MIGA are going to sign an agreement to begin support for project operations, which would create room for private entities to generate projects capable of absorbing capital and supporting economic growth.
Highlighting the scale of opportunities available to Nigerian firms beyond the country, Vincelette disclosed that the World Bank has a massive global procurement pipeline.
“Here on this slide, we see a couple of numbers. One is $250 bn. This is what we have approved, or net commitments that are available, and it’s already approved by our board and available to be delivered in projects, in financing to governments across the world. We also see another number here, which is 40,000. 40,000 is the number of procurement opportunities which are out there for companies to basically deliver on these projects that are approved by our board,” she said.
GIK/APA