ABUJA — Five firms are now jostling for the execution of the $32 million World Bank project on the development of the Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) to be implemented in three states.
The Nigerian Investment Promotion Commission announced the pre-qualification of the five international companies in Abuja, yesterday, following the opening of the bids. The firms were said to be PricewaterhouseCoopers, Emerging Market Economies Limited, International Development Ireland Limited and The Louis Berger Group, Inc.
The NIPC is the project implementation secretariat for the $32 million World Bank’s small and medium scale enterprises project.
Speaking with newsmen on Wednesday in Abuja before the closed-door opening of tenders on the World Bank SMEs project, the Director of Policy Advocacy and Project of NIPC, Alhaji Lawan Gana Latenwa, confirmed that the pilot project would take off in three states of the federation — Lagos, Abia and Kaduna.
“This project is the one the president is targeting and we believe that at the end of the exercise we would do a review as it affects the operation. If it conforms with our target level, then there is likelihood that the project will be extended to other states of the federation.
“We have assurance from the Minister of Finance that if it conforms with the performance figure it would be extended to other states and more money would also be brought into the project in order to cover other states,” Latenwa said.
A total of 86 companies submitted expressions of interest (EoIs) to partner the NIPC in the implementation of the World Bank project.
“We received 86 EoIs from different companies, both nationally and internationally. The commission selected six companies that conform with the eligibility requirement; out of which only five of the selected companies completed and submitted their bid documents. But today we are going to open the bid documents of the five companies,” Latenwa said.
He added: “The request for proposal document has been given to each member of the Evaluation Committee. The document would provide a guide to the committee as it examines the submission of the bidders. The committee is to confirm and grade the bidders.
