By; MATTHEW UKACHUNWA, Lagos
A director at Nigerian Railway Corporation (NRC), has disclosed that 524 organizations participated in the bidding for procurement activities at the corporation.
Dr. Monsurat Omotayo, Director of Administration and Human Resources at NRC, gave the figure at the opening ceremony of this year’s Pre-qualification/Expression of Interest (EOI) for 2024 Procurement Activities.
Omotayo represented the managing director of Nigerian Railway Corporation on the occasion which was held at NRC’s headquarters in Lagos on 25th April 2024.
The bidding ended at noon on Thursday.
Omotayo said that the event was significant because it marked the beginning of procurement process for this year, and she highlighted the measures that were taken to make the bidding fair, thorough and detailed.
According to her, there were three categories of the bidding, namely: works, goods and services in which the bidders participated.
“I just want to emphasize the importance of this exercise. It’s part of the extant laws. It’s part of government initiative, and of course, it’s open to be able to get suitable organizations that will help in supporting the federal government’s Renewed Hope Agenda in developing and enhancing the services of Nigeria Railway Corporation,” she said while declaring the bidding ceremony opened.
According to her, the opening ceremony is the normal ritual that must happen in line with Procurement Act in order to make the process transparent and fair.
“Nigerian Railway Corporation went out with adverts a month ago, March 18th, 2024 to invite interested organizations who are suitable and capable to pre-qualify and show expression of interest for the 2024 capital process for the Nigerian Railway Corporation.
The advert closed on 16th April, but, of course, due to the holidays we had for Easter and Id-el Fitri , it was extended to today for the opening,” the director of admin and human resources explained.
The bid’s guidelines, rules and regulations were announced by the corporation’s Director of Procurement, Mr. Ben Iloanusi.
The over 500 projects to be funded with NRC’s budget for this year which is about 11 billion Naira, according to Iloanusi, fall into three categories: Works which includes renovation, roads, repair of locomotives and rolling stock, and so on.
The goods category is basically supplies such as spare parts, track, materials, among other things, while the services category include insurance and alternative revenue generation, etc.
The event was witnessed by representatives of Federal Ministry of Transportation, Anti-Corruption and Transparency Unit, Chartered Institute of Purchasing and Supply, Non-governmental Organizations (NGOs) such as Civil Liberty Organisation (CLO).
