By Adedapo Adesanya
The Nigerian Railway Corporation (NRC) has confirmed that 524 firms have expressed interest in its 2024 Capital Procurement Project.
This was disclosed by the Managing Director of the NRC, Mr Fidet Okhiria, in Lagos at the 2024 Bid Opening Exercise, an annual event in line with the Procurement Act, where he was represented by Mrs Monsurat Omotayo, Director, Administration and Human Resources of the NRC.
According to Mr Okhiria, the exercise is important in that the NRC is hoping to get suitable organisations that will support the Federal Government’s New Hope Agenda as regards the corporation.
“This programme is very significant because it defines the beginning of our Capital Procurement process for 2024 and it is in line with the extant rules and Procurement Act.
“It is one process that is important for us to do. It is to show fairness and transparency to all the people that responded to our advertisement,” he said.
Mr Okhiria pointed out that the NRC was committed to a fair, thorough and transparent process, as the process was very detailed for all the different criteria put out for the bidders to follow.
The NRC boss noted that advertisement commenced on March 18 and was extended to April 16, due to the Easter and Sallah celebrations.
“We have evaluators here to evaluate all the documents and it is going to be a very detailed exercise which we do every year. Anybody that passes through this phase credibly, will pass it.
“We have 524 bidders that showed interest across the three categories which are works, goods and services.
“This process is corruption-free, which is why we invited the media and we have professional bodies to see how the process goes,” he said.
Also, Mr Ben Iloanusi, Director, Procurement, NRC, listed commodities under works to include renovation, roads, and repair of locomotives and coaches.
“Goods have to do with basic supplies like lubricants, automobile gasoline, spare parts, track materials and others and in services, we have insurance, alternative revenue generation and others,” he said.
Mr Iloanusi said that the NRC had a lot of projects, about 500, adding that everything was dependent on the corporation’s budget, but it would push priority projects forward.
“The budget for the NRC for this year is about N11 billion, and it will be spread across the projects pending on their priorities.
“Over the years, we do not get anything less than 1000 bidders, from 700 upward but this time we have about 524,” he said.
Aduragbemi Omiyale