Kwara trains contractors on school project

From Adekunle Jimoh, Ilorin

Kwara State Government has organised a three-day capacity building workshop for local contractors.

The contractors would  work with the State Universal Basic Education Board (KW-SUBEB).

The  state government recently received N7.1 billion Universal Basic Education Council (UBEC) grants after seven years of blacklist. Thus ,it is set to begin massive infrastructural renewal of basic schools across the 16 local government areas.

Commissioner for Education and Human Capital Development, Hajia Fatimah Ahmed explained that the workshop was  to enlighten local contractors on the requirements for successful bidding process.

“The essence of the training is to enlighten our local contractors because in bidding for a contract there are requirements that will be needed from the contractors which many of them might not be aware of.

“This training was to educate them on the procurement process and what the state would  need from them before bidding for any contract. We had  over 1000 participants and the workshop was done  in batches,” she added.

Ahmed urged the prospective contractors to abide by relevant rules and requirements of the tender board to ensure successful bidding process.

Procurement Consultant and Governance Reform expert Omomofe Akintunde, said the training was designed to equip prospective bidders and vendors in Kwara State on steps to follow for a successful bidding process in line with the Public Procurement Act 2007 and the Kwara State Public Procurement Law.

“Public procurement is for the public, and government needs to interact with bidders on the way to understand the technicalities and what must be put in place before participating in procurement activities and win,” he said.

Akintunde  praised the state government for deploying the use of public procurement as a public policy and hoped it would translate to dividends of democracy.

Two of the contractors Umar Farouq Sanni and Omotayo Oladele said the training was necessary to assist them on how to manage the contract and rewrite the story of Kwara State through efficient management of UBEC funds.