Contract bidding: Senate seeks level playing field for indigenous contractors

By Haruna Salami

The Senate  has mandated its Committees on Public Procurement Local Content to ensure level playing ground  for local contractors in the contract  bidding process.

 The red chamber urged the committees to liaise with Bureau  of  Public  Procurement (BPP) and Local Content with a view to amend their various Acts to give local contractors fair chance to contribute to the nation’s economic growth.

 This resolution followed the adoption of a motion at plenary on Wednesday on need to engage local indigenous contractors for execution of Small-Scale Federal Government contracts to stimulate grassroots economic development.

The sponsor of the motion, Senator Suleiman Sadiq APC- (Kwara North) said the federal government  was  committed to fostering inclusive economic growth, reducing poverty, and creating sustainable development and employment opportunities for its teeming population.

 According to him “Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises (SMEs) and Local Contractors represent the bedrock of the  economy, possessing vast potential for job creation, wealth distribution, and local capacity building  at the grassroots level.

 “There is an existing local content policies and initiatives including the Renewed Hope Infrastructure Development Fund” by the current administration.

 However, he said the numerous small-scale federal government contracts below the threshold  of N50 million were  often executed by larger, non-indigenous firms.

 This, he said was  limiting direct economic benefits to local communities and stifling the growth of nascent indigenous enterprises across the 774 local government areas.

 Engaging local contractors for such contracts would significantly enhance community participation, job creation, increase productivity, foster  sense of ownership in public projects, he said.

“It will  ensure that government spending directly circulates within local economies”, he said.